> Item 1. Hybrid cars: Find the right person to ask, ask > publically, and put the answer in print: "Why is it that four > years ago hybrids got 50 mpg, and now they get 25 mpg? What's the > point?"
This is because the US market has been focused on performance, not efficiency. The first hybrids were seen as suitable only for "environmental wackos", sort of like the old slow diesel cars. To break into the mainstream market, hybrid cars had to do what every other technology for increasing efficiency has done -- allowed the use of higher power engines without sacrificing mileage. I don't have the numbers handy, but I believe the average HP per pound of passenger cars and trucks in the US has close to doubled since the mid 70's, yet the average new car still gets about the same mileage. If they had kept the relative power the same as back then, then a standard gasoline car nowadays would get better mileage than 70's cars because of all the technology improvements -- fuel injection, variable valve timing, overhead multivalve engines, more transmission speeds, lockup torque converters, etc. The new hybrid cars are following the same trend -- the power of a V6, but the economy of a 4 cylinder.... Even the new diesels from VW available in the US are this way -- way faster than old ones, but the same mileage, while ones like the Lupo have proven that much higher mileage is possible if we are willing to do with a little less acceleration -- and even a lupo has better acceleration than an old NA diesel rabbit... _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
