Hybrid Center.org and a few other sites seem to provide pretty good information on many aspects of hybrids.
I believe the planned Toyota Sienna van will have about the same hp as the current petrol-only model. It's allegedly being designed to get about 40 mpg, which is a significant improvement over the 18-25 mpg dogs on the road and in sales lots now. More importantly for urban cyclists, it should be very clean, meeting California's/EPA's SULEV/PZEV (Super ultra low emissions vehicle) standards. However, it apparently will not be out until 2007, if then... I was also surprised to learn that Ford's Escape hybrid small suv-thing combines a small petrol engine with a 90 hp electric motor to get the same combined hp as the dismally inefficient all-petrol model, but with a nearly 50% increase in overall efficiency. So that one at least does not seem to be getting a gratuitous horsepower boost from the electric motor, but gets much cleaner overall emissions in urban areas. It too meets the SULEV/PZEV because of the engine-off-at-stops feature. Because the electric motor alone can supposedly push the thing at 25 mph, it's also a great motivator for its owners to act as rolling traffic-calming captains in residential speed zones - to the potential benefit of cyclists and peds. Some owners have reported even going along at up to 35 mph before the petrol engine will turn on. If only it had been scaled down a bit to a small, contemporary station wagon size, it would likely perform a lot better. I have read from owners though that in cold weather, the engine needs be stay on more to stay heated up, so the efficiency drops and emissions rise a little. A friend with a Prius also reports decreased mpg in winter, so maybe this is a feature of all existing hybrids? Overall, current hybrids are either a bit too small for biking families bent on occasional canoe-country road trips, or too disappointing in their highway/long-distance fuel efficiency if they are big enough. Health-wise however, we'd all be better off if urban (non-bike) commuters were idling in SULEV hybrids rather than in what most of them have now! Re: Scott's older info on the upcoming Saturn Vue hybrid, they scaled it down drastically to a "mild hybrid" after that press release, so that it won't even match the Ford suv in fuel efficiency. What are they smoking at GM??!!! http://www.hybridcars.com/saturn-vue-hybrid.html -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jay Otto Sent: Friday, July 29, 2005 2:02 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Bikies] NY Times: House Passes Energy Bill On Jul 28, 2005, at 7:42 PM, Scott Rose wrote: > timwong wrote: > >> I like the way they consider "alternative (motor) vehicles" as energy >> conservation. >> > > Just wait: makers of SUVs are adding hybrid technology not to save > fuel, but to add acceleration. Watch as these folks co-opt the program > established to reward fuel efficiency to instead reward gratuitous > power increases in mammoth vehicles. Perhaps drifting slightly off topic, however: As far as I can tell, this has already happened -- the tax incentives for efficient vehicles have been completely corrupted, because they say they are available for "hybrid vehicles", rather than "for vehicles which get better than 70 MPG" -- are there ANY hybrid vehicles available, or even planned to be availble in the US (other than the Honda Insight, and, more arguably, the Toyota Prius) where the hybrid system is designed to improve efficiency vs increasing acceleration/hp ratings? Jay _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
