-----Original Message----- From: mix...@bigpond.com > While a 100 mpg is not to be sneezed at, don't forget that in some cases a PHEV will not use any gas at all.
Well that is what I meant by "shenanigans" ... it is not credible to suggest that the PHEV is a good alternative to biodiesel - when the dirty coal plant that recharges the batteries is belching toxic pollutants out, megatons per year with line losses and battery losses and core losses and transformer losses and everything else... .... and that small diesel, in contrast, is very efficient and carbon neutral and far lower in pollutants. Never mind that solar or wind "could in theory" supply that energy necessary for recharging the PHEV - you have to go with the percentages, and it is not a pretty picture because of coal. The small diesel, fueled with biodiesel, and running at constant speed with an energy storage hybridized accumulator (batteries or hydraulics or whatever) makes much more sense for transportation than anything else - at least from where we stand in 2009 in terms of what is actually possible now. Of course, we all want the breakthrough (LENR, ZPE magnetics, fractional hydrogen) that ushers in a new paradigm, and which will probably utilize the same "hybridized energy accumulator" of the Lightning - but that breakthrough is not here yet. The bottom line is that a hydraulic hybrid (as Terry has noticed) offers a 50 percent increase in fuel economy and a 30 percent decrease in emissions, yet still leaves us wondering why the technology is less popular than bacon-flavored vodka. Jones
