Posted on 01/04/2003 2:48:29 AM PST by kattracks
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- More than 70 hybrid cars were parked outside the Los Angeles Convention Center to send a message to Detroit automakers: There is a demand for fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly vehicles.
The gathering Friday of hybrid car owners from Sacramento to San Diego, as well as Hollywood celebrities, contrasted with the muscle cars and gas-guzzling SUVs inside at the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show.
Hybrid cars combine a gasoline engine with an electric motor. Some cars, like the Toyota Prius, use the electric motor exclusively at low speeds, while others, such as Honda's Civic, use power from both at all speeds.
"We're here to show that people are interested in something to promote clean air with less fuel," said Jessie Williams, who drove his Prius from El Cajon.
Actress Nancy Allen traded her Volvo in for a Prius last July.
"It's so peppy," she said. "Every day I drive it, I feel I'm giving something back to the environment and giving something back to myself."
The protest came as the Union of Concerned Scientists released a report concluding that American-made cars and trucks could reach an average of 60 miles per gallon by the end of the next decade by adopting the best hybrid technology.
Hybrids cost more than conventional cars. But buyers can qualify for a federal tax deduction and local tax incentives in some areas.
Chrysler Group President Dieter Zetsche downplayed hybrids in a speech Thursday, saying fuel cell technology is the ultimate answer and that improving existing diesel technology is a better short-term alternative.
Ford is producing a hybrid SUV and introduced a reduced-emissions Focus at the show Thursday.
Actress Donna Mills stopped driving her Lexus when she bought one of the first Prius hybrids 2½ years ago.
"Enough already with being dependent on foreign countries for oil or drilling in the Arctic for oil," she said. "People want these cars. People love them. Make them."
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On the Net:
Greater Los Angeles Auto Show: http://www.laautoshow.com/
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Prius' batteries are recharged by siphoning off power from the internal combustion engine and from regenerative braking. No external power connection is installed or necessary. (Except for the optional engine block heater. That runs on mains current.)
Isn't that simply "moving" the fossil-fuel consumption from the place of use to the place of production?
That's right, for the pure electric vehicles (EVs). I'm somewhat less concerned about the emissions than the Greens are - they're SULEV fetishists, whilst I'm looking at that mileage sticker. ;-)
Now, if we were to recharge pure EVs using nuclear power, then they ought to be happy; no "pollution", right? Wrong, they'd still find something to complain about.
For emissions, I don't know about scrubbing technology, whether it's more emission-efficient to have lots of little sources each with a catalyic converter or a few big sources each with scrubbers.
Seventy people between all of Sac and Sandy Eggo? Seventy people out of more than half the state of California? That doesn't seem like a huge demand to me...
As to you belief that freeing the US from its oil dependency will lead to increased safety...
If you think the Arabs hate us now, wait until we have no more use for them or their part of the world.
One has nothing to do with the other. As is proved by our own history, when the drive for "fuel efficiency" dumbed down cars at the same time environmentalist twits like yourself prevented us as a nation from drilling for domestic oil. The truth is, regardless of how passionately your ilk quests for the holy grail of "fuel efficiency," the road to energy independence has been blocked by liberal environmentalism.
FREEDOM is the first, middle, and last step to energy independence, to whit: the freedom to explore and use our own resources. It is twits like you who constantly want to restrict Americans' vehicle choices and at the same time want to restrict Americans' ability to provide for her own energy needs.
One of the main themes at this year's LA Auto Show seems to be, in the words of Tim Allen: "MORE POWER!!!". Muscle cars are making a comeback, with the show featuring vehicles such as the revived Pontiac GTO (really a rebadged Holden Monaro from GM's Australian subsidiary). The new GTO will be powered by the Corvette LS1 engine, putting out 340 horses. Dodge is also showing its Dodge Magnum "Sport Wagon" concept, which will go on sale in about a year. This is one mean looking station wagon! The concept (and hopefully the production model) has a 5.7 liter V8 Hemi rated at 430 HP. This comes on the heels of the revived Mercury Maurauder introduced last summer. Auuuughhhh, Auuuuughhhhh AUUUUUUGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
Now that's "peppy"!
I'm ex-Navy nuke and spent my career as civilian Rx eng. I agree that they'd find something to complain about. Try bicycling. I ride a recumbent.
To bicycle, one has to eat, and eating produces methane emissions. As We All Know, methane is a Greenhouse GasTM...
Yeah, the watermelons won't stop complaining until humanity is extingushed. They give conservationists like me a bad name.
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