In reply to Jones Beene's message of Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:16:15 -0700 (PDT): Hi, [snip] >All I am suggesting to do - to make this concept more affordable to the >average Joe, is to: > >1) dump the lithium in favor of advanced SLA >2) go for a battery range of 20 miles instead of 40 miles (20 was the range of >the VH-1) which covers most day-to-day errands and short commutes
I suspect the rationale is that they want to save as much gas as possible. If the average round trip commute is 40 miles, then cutting the all electric range to 20 miles would result on average in at most a 50% reduction in gas usage. By making the all electric range 40 miles OTOH, the average reduction is almost 100%. That makes a big difference in the dependence on imported fuel. >3) keep the electric motor the same size >4) trim the 4-cylinder down in power and weight to about 35 kW and make it a >diesel, possibly a two cylinder diesel. > >I believe this would cut $10,000 off the cost of batteries - making the >vehicle affordable for a much larger segment of drivers. Compared to the >present Prius, the smaller diesel will get significantly better mileage. [snip] Regards, Robin van Spaandonk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
