Robin van Spaandonk wrote:
> >Post Office urban delivery route is shorter than 100 km. They drive > slowly. > > ...but then, you are also cherry picking. ;) That's the whole idea. Cherry pick the application that best fits the vehicle, while the vehicles are in short supply. Note also that hybrid and pure electric cars are much better than ICE for slow, stop and go driving. > >Second, even when a plug-in hybrid battery is exhausted, a plug-in hybrid > >with a 50 kW ICE is still far more efficient an ordinary ICE car, and in > >hilly areas it is much more efficient than a Prius, because the battery > >buffer is larger. > > True, but fleet use will create the general impression that PHEVs are only > maybe > 30% or so better than ordinary cars, whereas, if used primarily in the > markets > for which they are most suited, they can 70-100% better, as you yourself > have > previously pointed out. I would not worry about the impression they make. I am more concerned with how much gasoline they save, compared to an ICE. If the BYD is driven 200 km per day, it saves a huge amount of gasoline the first 100 km and a considerable amount the second 200 km. It is better all around, no matter how far you drive it. It is "most suited" for the longest distance you can find, because even after the battery is exhausted I expect it remains much more efficient than any other car including the Prius. > It is precisely *because* the family car is only driven > 40 miles a business day, that it *should* be a PHEV. That would mean that > it > would effectively be almost all electric, consuming little of no gas, > reducing > dependence on foreign fuel, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and shifting > to > energy supplied via the grid. This would be just as true if the car is driven 200 km, or 1000 km per day. The more you drive, the more gas it saves, compared to a conventional car. My point was than many families drive much less than the total 100 km range, so it would be waste of battery range. Better to go over 100 km most days then under it. - Jed
