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Hybrid cars
They're not new, in the 30's, 40's and early 50's most urban delivery vehicles in Northern Ireland were battery-powered electric vehicles.
There are several variations on the hybrids of today though. The Toyota & Honda version, where the small gas engine powers an electrical system, just like in a train engine, seems the most promising. Although there is a big push to develop the 'parallel' system, wherein a vehicle has a small gas engine, just enough to keep it rolling, then gets a boost from an electric motor that also drives the same transmission as the gas motor does, when it needs to pull away or for more accelleration in general.
One of the most promising however will likely be the Hydrogen assist system. This is basically an electrical device which reduces water into Hydrogen & Oxygen and then injects them into a conventional gas or diesel engine for better performance on less fossil fuel.
The big advantage to this is it can be used on existing vehicles and technology.
Best of luck.
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For those of us who live in the more northern parts of the continent a diesel motor sitting over the drive wheels makes a HUGE difference in drivability in winter weather also.
I don't think anybody would make it out of their driveway around here with one of those lightweight buggies after a good dump of snow blows down off the bay and lands in the front yard.
Best of luck.
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A number of years ago Ford offered an "electronic all wheel drive" version of the Aerostar which was a RWD vehicle. Basically it was a 2WD vehicle that had a high torque motor that kicked in to assist by powering the front wheels when it sensed the back wheels slipping.
A neighbour at my cottage bought on which he still drives today, it has been very dependable for him.
I remember reading in I think it was Popular Mechanics at the time they came out that Ford viewed it as the first step towards more electric drive systems.
Best of luck.
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The comment about weight is exactly what I was talking about.
The Jetta weighs almost exactly 3000 lbs. and not very much of it is batteries, a 1.9 litre diesel sitting over the wheels means a considerable amount more weight is on the drive tires to increase traction.
Are ALL the batteries in a Prius under the hood together with the electric drive system and the 1.5 litre gas motor?
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The Prius uses a sealed Nickel-metal hybrid battery, although I have not seen any description of what the metal is. Presumably the battery would have a very long life and even then it would be recycled as most rechargeable batteries are today.
I have not seen the spec.'s on the emissions either, although it is a very high-tech 4 valve per cylinder 4 banger, the fact still remains, it is a 1.5 litre GAS motor.
The diesel can't be THAT far behind it in cleanliness considering how thrifty it is on fuel in the first place, at 50ish miles per gallon there just isn't a lot fuel left to create emissions after making 100hp along the way.
Best of luck.
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I had some visitors from overseas this summer.
In the course of touring them around Toronto one of them commented about how expensive taxis must be here. This comment left me a little bewildered at first. How can seeing a taxi driving down the street give you any indication of cost? When questioned about the comment the answer made it all very clear.
If they can afford to throw away a big North American car every couple of years after paying big bucks in gas & repairs they MUST be bringing in lots of money in order to be able to afford to do it and still make a profit.
When I asked about taxis "back home" the reply was "Mercedes Diesel sedans, ALL of them." Apparently they run these things for sometimes in excess of 20 years and just rebuild them as a routine thing every 600,000 kilometers (372,000 miles) or so.
It is not uncommon I'm told for these things to run 20+ years and rack up several million kilometers before they are retired, and even them there is a long line of people who want to buy them for personal use.
Now THAT is a USED car.
Best of luck.
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