This certainly agrees with my personal experience and analysis. In
fact, I would go even further. My step-son bought a new 2004 Civic
Hybrid in January 2004. The car is very nice. It comfortably seats
four adults and the back seat is comfortable for my six-foot,
165-pound frame. However, he has found that it gets between 30 and 40
miles per gallon in his driving. That does not compare particularly
favorably with the 35 to 45 my 1996 Civic gets (with over 200,000
miles on it) which also comfortably seats 4 adults. We supported him
spending the extra money to get it at the time, but I'm feeling
differently now.
I don't see the Honda Insight as particularly green either. It's a
two seater that gets 70 miles per gallon (according to the hype,
which gave the Civic Hybrid close to 50 mpg). That works out to 140
person-miles per gallon at full capacity. As I mentioned, my
five-seater 96 Civic really does get 40 mpg (with some tankfuls going
as high as 50 mpg). That works out to about 200 person-miles per
gallon at full capacity (with minor losses as a result of carrying
that much weight). Even with only four people in the car, it gets
better mileage than the fully loaded Insight. My wife and I almost
never travel alone, so we just about always get better mileage (80
mpg) than the Insight would get with a single driver.
I think the hybrid concept has tremendous potential. In fact, I
think it could go much further in performance and safety, _while_
getting better mileage, than current IC-only designs. Four
independent electric motors would give full-time, fully independent
four-wheel drive with no differentials to mess up the delivery of all
(or most) of the power to the one wheel that has traction.
Distributing the battery pack out to all four wheels would reduce
electrical losses and improve the weight distribution and thus
safety of the car. Unfortunately, these first attempts are not going
this route; they just tack an electric motor onto current designs.
Given the wasteful nature of capitalism, I guess we will have to go
through this phase to get to that place.
John
This article reports on the fact that most hybrids actually do not
get much better mileage than standard cars. Manufacturers are using
the electrical engines to improve performance rather than increase
mileage; whereas improved mileage is the reason that these cars
qualify for large tax credits.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/17/automobiles/17hybrid.html?ex=1279252800&en=ae427a90941e848d&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&em
c=rss
_______________________________________________
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/
