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World's Cleanest Cars - READ ONLY

84 messages,  Last post on Dec 27, 2006 at 8:59 AM

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Messages Page 9 of 9

#75 of 84 is time by crazygreen

Jul 19, 2006 (9:53 pm)

the hybrid cars deserve more support.
well, all the ecologic cars
i think we are in a world who wants ecologic cars more than ever

#76 of 84 Re: Diesel rules in Europe because of lower fuel taxes [electrictroy] by karkus

Dec 19, 2006 (9:31 am)

Replying to: electrictroy (Mar 17, 2005 8:02 am)
"Unfortunately, the disappointing sales figures — only 28,000 units were sold in six years — meant the mileage champ was ultimately dropped from the German carmaker's lineup."
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=116314
 
Well, it really doesn't sound like they were production limited after all. In fact, the Lupo 3L sold so poorly they stopped production. It only averaged about 4666 units per year. The Prius has sold more units per MONTH every month for the past two years than the Lupo sold each year. Hmmm.....
 
Now WV has the Polo Blue Motion, which "returns a highly impressive 60 mpg on the combined European consumption cycle". Once again, people have touted this as a "Prius beater", when in fact they are trying to compare a subcompact to the midsize Prius. Let's see VW scale that technology up to a Passat or at least a Jetta sized car, and then we'll have a good comparison.
 
Still, I applaud VW for making cleaner high MPG diesels which they will hopefully bring to the US in 2008. It's a shame that diesel and hybrid supporters often fight each other, when in fact they are both striving for similar goals. In fact, VW has just announced a hybrid (gasoline) for 2009, and Toyota is working on diesels. Soon we'll have diesel electric cars, which combine the best of both worlds.

#77 of 84 European fuel efficiency measurements by tpe

Dec 19, 2006 (10:04 am)

Europeans, and for that matter most of the world, measure fuel efficiency in gallons per mile not miles per gallon. Actually its liters per 100 kilometers but the same principal. You might be thinking, what does it matter? It matters a lot with our convuluted CAFE system. Here's an extreme example, take a vehicle that gets 10 mpg and instead rate it at 10 gallons per 100 miles. Now take another vehicle rated at 50 mpg and convert this to 2 miles per 100 gallons. What's the average? (10+2)/2 = 6 gallons per 100 miles or 16.7 mpg. Our system would have averaged the 50 mpg and the 10 mpg, which is (50+10)/2 = 30 mpg. The US system is fundamentally flawed when it comes to determining just how much fuel the average vehicle is using.

#78 of 84 Why not Electric by gypsy_tech

Dec 19, 2006 (11:04 am)

This post is about the world’s cleanest cars. All electric beat the competition so readily that discussions about hybrids or Diesel's doesn’t make any sense.

#79 of 84 Re: Why not Electric [gypsy_tech] by rorr

Dec 19, 2006 (1:02 pm)

Replying to: gypsy_tech (Dec 19, 2006 11:04 am)
"All electric beat the competition so readily that discussions about hybrids or Diesel's doesn’t make any sense."
 
Isn't that highly dependent on the source of the electricity?

#80 of 84 Re: Why not Electric [rorr] by gypsy_tech

Dec 20, 2006 (11:50 am)

Replying to: rorr (Dec 19, 2006 1:02 pm)
There are a couple of emerging technologies that make Electric cars (EV) more viable. One is the low cost solar panels that make it practical to charge an EV from them. http://www.nanosolar.com/
 Another is the improvement of battery technology and range. AC Propulsion has a link to many presentations that show how EV's could be charged at night an actually relieve some peak utility burden during the day. http://www.acpropulsion.com/resources/reports.htm
Most reports, (the ones not paid for by Oil companies) show that EV's pollute less than even the best Hybrids because of the more efficient production at the power plant.
If the eestor can be produced, and that might be a big if then I believe we will see a shift in the way we view transportation. http://money.cnn.com/2006/09/15/technology/disruptors_eestor.biz2/index.htm
 Thanks;
 
 

#81 of 84 Re: Why not Electric [gypsy_tech] by explorerx4

Dec 22, 2006 (5:57 pm)

Replying to: gypsy_tech (Dec 20, 2006 11:50 am)
i don't see how adding cars to the usage of the power grid will help things overall, unless they can't be charged up during peak hours.

#82 of 84 Re: Why not Electric [explorerx4] by gypsy_tech

Dec 26, 2006 (9:13 am)

Replying to: explorerx4 (Dec 22, 2006 5:57 pm)
They charge up during off peak hours and the power companies buy back power during peak hours. You charge the car at home and drive to work. Plug in at work and sell back power for a higher rate than you paid to charge up. If you drive lest than 40 miles round trip you could sell 100 miles worth of energy. (The new battery technology allows for a range of greater than 150 miles and if the Ultracapacitor works it would be over 200 miles.)

#83 of 84 Re: Why not Electric [explorerx4] by tpe

Dec 27, 2006 (6:08 am)

Replying to: explorerx4 (Dec 22, 2006 5:57 pm)
i don't see how adding cars to the usage of the power grid will help things overall,
 
That all depends on what you mean by "help things". If your goal is to reduce pollution and you get your energy from a dirty coal power plant then there isn't much benefit. If one of your goals is reduce our dependency on foreign oil then there absolutely is a benefit. The US is 100% self sufficient when it comes to generating electricity and we do have the spare capacity to charge a large fleet of EVs. Cleaning up the coal powerplants or transitioning to "greener" sources for our energy is doable and something to work towards but its not a legitimate reason to delay EVs.

#84 of 84 Re: Why not Electric [tpe] by gypsy_tech

Dec 27, 2006 (8:59 am)

Replying to: tpe (Dec 27, 2006 6:08 am)
Thanks for the response. Please do some research. Even using energy from a dirty coal plant to charge an EV would be cleaner than the cleanest hybrid that also runs an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE). Go to AC Propulsion's web site
( http://www.acpropulsion.com/resources/reports.htm ) and look at the articles about Vehicle to Grid applications. Using 100,000 EV's batteries during the peak afternoon demand when everyone is at work and charging them during the nighttime hours would reduce the total grid demand. Hence less pollution from the power plants and much less from the cars.
  The largest obsticle is profit. EV's use much less energy hence less cost to fill up meaning less profit. Business are in business to make money. Thank you for showing interest.

Messages Page 9 of 9

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