Posted on 02/04/2013 10:41:56 AM PST by jazusamo
Japan is backtracking on battery electric-car development, as even Nissan’s vice chairman, the so-called “father of the Prius,” announced plans to copy Toyota and pursue fuel-cell cars that convert hydrogen to electricity.
“Because of its shortcomings — driving range, cost and recharging time — the electric vehicle is not a viable replacement for most conventional cars,” said Nissan’s vice chairman, Takeshi Uchiyamada,..
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Only thing I don’t like about Priuses (Pri’i?) is they can sneak up on you. I worked in a loading area for a hardware store and they used to drive up behind me while I was loading another car and I’d almost trip over them when I turned around.
I’d buy a Prius and I’m no tree hugger by any stretch of the imagination.
$40k for an exploding golf cart, what’s not to like?
Perhaps the quote of the century.
What? A range of 35 miles is not good enough? Geez. /s
No no no no no.
It has a gasoline engine and an electric motor.
Sounds like you need a hybrid diesel. (VW?)
Color me skeptical. If, as you say, great advances are being made, we’re not seeing it here in the U.S. We’re getting scammed left and right by promises that don’t pan out, and ripped off by government subsidies to companies, stolen from our taxes, that end up benefitting foreign nations.
So if the advances happen, more power to you (her-hee). But let’s be fair, and acknowledge the efficiency and worth of gasoline - a proven technology. It’s been unfairly dinged left and right (mostly from the left).
Color me skeptical. If, as you say, great advances are being made, we’re not seeing it here in the U.S. We’re getting scammed left and right by promises that don’t pan out, and ripped off by government subsidies to companies, stolen from our taxes, that end up benefitting foreign nations.
So if the advances happen, more power to you (hee-hee). But let’s be fair, and acknowledge the efficiency and worth of gasoline - a proven technology. It’s been unfairly dinged left and right (mostly from the left).
Hybrid diesel - It worked for the U-boat.
You are 100% correct. The earth worshipers have been able to get the upper hand in the “environmental” debate. The tide has turned and their “theology” has been proven to be false and now the hard work of rolling back their gains has begun. In regards to combustion engines billions have been spent by large corporations and governmental entities in an effort to improve mileage and reduce pollution. What have we gained? Marginal improvements on the edges and unsafe vehicles that cause more harm than the environmental effects they sought to mitigate. Innovation does not come by way of large corporations and government mandating change. Having worked in both environments there is no innovation only incremental change on the technologies that are already available. The Dept of Energy’s 21st Century Truck program failed and it had 16 of largest players in the automotive/truck industry and three federal agencies involved. What did they gain - better idling on Class 8 tractors. Money down the drain and all we get is better idling on the big rigs - give me a break. Along comes a little guy and he creates a way to move everything forward. This is how change happens in this country. The establishment or those invested in the status quo resist change, buy out potential threats, or smear the innovator. This is taking place in this country in regards to this technology. History is full of such examples and the latest is the MRAP vehicle program designed to save our soldiers from IED blasts. A guy in his garage came up with the final solution and could not get the Army to use it. They insisted on developing their own. We had the solution and the government was insisting on its own solution while our guys were dying. It took intervention by the Senate Armed services Committee get this technology deployed. Change is coming and conditions have to be right or desperate enough before they are accepted.
One obvious, yet totally ignored solution! Or how about just plain diesel. Many cars sold in the US have brilliantly engineered, computer controlled, clean-running, small turbo-diesel counterparts on sale in the rest of the world that achieve 2-3 times the fuel mileage, with no loss in "performance,*" while meeting EU emission standards which mimic California's. That FIAT 500 gets 70 mpg with diesel power in Europe. Lucky to break 30mpg here in the US! Ditto, the VW TDI.
If the American car passenger fleet were diesel powered, fleet mileage could more than double and there would be NO NEED for fuel importation.
Somebody in government was frightened in utero by a smoky old MB 190 D, and we are doomed to suffer ever since? Perhaps if we had a POTUS who could actually change a tire or check his own oil?
*in re "performance:" WTF says a humble Honda Civic has to have better 1/4 mile times than a 1975 Ferrari? This is a country with speed limits which rarely top 70mph on the interstates ... and with stop lights every 500 yards everywhere else? As a car buyer, would you trade 2 seconds more "0-60" in exchange for another 20 mpg?
More on the idiotic "stoplight" policy later. Many are completely unnecessary, many others could easily be replaced by my favorite: the round-about, which has the added advantage of killing off more inept drivers.
All modern freight locomotives are diesel-electric hybrids, and have been for decades. Perhaps they know something the US government doesn’t.........
Or new refineries would have to be built. Between the enviro-wackos and the Obama-bots, that will not happen.
So there is a chicken/egg dilemma. If refineries are modified, an expensive and time consuming process that is usually only done every twenty years or so, there would have to be enough demand to justify a change in process engineering, otherwise the modified refinery would be producing a product without a market.
YOU have one of those too?
MINE doesn't talk to me much anymore. We were discussing Three Mile Island, he hates Nuke Plants of course, and I asked him how many people died there. He didn't know (of course), so I gave him a hint, “one less than died in Ted Kennedy's Oldsmobile”.
Needless to say, the conversation ended rather abruptly.
I have several, sigh... This one is married to a sister that is just as liberal. I would send links of proof rebutting his statements, she got upset and said don't send anything else, so we don't email anything anymore to each other. Another is bankrupt, he and his wife spent themselves into a deep hole because they're Obama-lovers and believed the recession was over. He actually told me he's been waiting for the economy to rescue them, so that's why they kept spending. He spends within his future means (thinks the economy will go like gangbusters any minute now). Another is sponging off taxpayers, takes advantage of every government handout. Can't stand any of them.
Speaking of gasoline, our government (remember them) has mandated "boutique" fuels, which vary wildly from region to region, depending upon what bogus science they are using in the region.
Diesel has to be de-sulfured, for example, which makes things much more complex than necessary.
You want to blame Bush for something? Blame him for letting the EPA run things. He spent 8 years doing very little about oil, weird for a man reputedly once in the awl bidness.
It worked for Volkswagen, in Germany, in 2008. I think it got 79MPG.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.