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| Home Front: Economy |
| WSJ: On hybrid cars |
| 2004-10-11 |
| FWIW, my conclusion: with hybrid cars selling faster than they are being produced, U.S. will cut gasoline needs by 20-30% w/in decade Note: only Wall Street Journal subscribers can access, so I give you the entire article Honda's New Hybrid Takes New Tack: It's a Feel-Good Car, Not a Do-Good Car The gas-electric hybrid-car market isn't up to Baskin-Robbins's level yet, but it's about to get some important new flavors. In December, Honda plans to roll out the next major hybrid entry: a gas-electric version of its best-selling model, the Honda Accord sedan. The first gas-electric hybrid cars offered in the U.S. market came in one style: Science Project. Honda's Insight and the first edition of the Toyota Prius generated more media buzz than sales, mainly because they were tiny, not very powerful cars once you got past the initial "wow!" of driving a car that promised to go as much as 70 miles on a gallon of gas. Honda's new gas-electric hybrid Accord. The Accord Hybrid, which I got to drive briefly last week, is another proposition entirely. This time, Honda is using its hybrid technology to make a small, six-cylinder engine feel like a beefy, large-displacement six from Detroit or Munich -- but with the fuel economy of a four-cylinder Honda Civic. The Accord Hybrid's purpose isn't just to give the Honda brand a green halo. It's to give the midpriced model line -- which trades largely on its reputation for durability and practicality -- some extra prestige with consumers who like action when they hit the gas. The Hybrid Accord will be rated at 255 horsepower, compared with 240 for the regular Accord V-6, and will generate 9% more torque. Torque is the force that you feel in your fanny when you hit the gas; by adding what amounts to an extra motor and a battery pack to the stock 3.0 liter Accord V-6, Honda has produced a car that has more of it than a 3.8 liter V-6 Buick LeSabre -- the epitome of large-displacement Detroit sixes. This is a difference you can feel. The Hybrid Accord accelerates with far more authority than its nonhybrid sibling. Hey, that thing got a Hybrid in it? Sweet! |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #11 Nuclear is safe. Environmentalists went crazy after 3-Mile Island. 3-Mile Island was a really story in containment of an incident (think donut eating guy on Holiday Inn commercials) We don't usually hear that story. New builds were scuttled. france gets 70% of its energy from nuclear--I have not heard of any problems. One thing they got right. There was a project at Oak Ridge at one time to look into nuclear-powered aircraft. The breeder reactor project at Oak Ridge was nearly completed and got shut down by Congress. Political weasels. We need to get back to building nuclear plants. Feasibility of nuclear cars??? |
| Posted by: A. Bungfodder 2004-10-11 7:49:52 PM |
| #10 Hybrid cars ar OK, but we urgently need to build nuclear plants. It will deny Sauds of $$$$$$$$ to promote hate, will reduce our trade deficit by hundreds of billions per year and will create thousand of jobs to design, bulid and operate the plants. There is no any discussion in the media or government on the topic. I WONDER WHY??? |
| Posted by: Wondering 2004-10-11 7:01:43 PM |
| #9 http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/usa.html#oil The United States consumed an average of about 20.0 MMBD of oil in 2003, up from 19.8 MMBD in 2002. Of this, 8.9 MMBD (or 45% of the total) was motor gasoline, 4.8 MMBD (24%) "other oils" 3.9 MMBD (20%) distillate fuel oil, 1.6 MMBD (8%) jet fuel, and 0.77 million bbl/d (4%) residual fuel oil. ... The United States averaged total gross oil (crude and products) imports of an estimated 12.2 MMBD during 2003, representing around 62% of total U.S. oil demand. Over two-fifths of this oil came from OPEC nations, with Persian Gulf sources accounting for about one-fifth of total U.S. oil imports. Overall, the top suppliers of oil (crude and refined products) to the United States during 2003 were Canada (2.1 MMBD), Saudi Arabia (1.8 MMBD), Mexico (1.6 MMBD), and Venezuela (1.4 MMBD). If we can replace just 50% of gasoline usage with nuclear generated electric cars, it would replace twice our Persian Gulf oil imports. |
| Posted by: ed 2004-10-11 6:47:28 PM |
| #8 What percentage of oil does the national fleet consume? I thought it was about 25%. Significant but we need to get smart quick to cut loose from the mid-East crazies. Bush mentioned development of the hydrogen powered car. Hydrogen is plentiful but requires energy to extract. Also a serious infrastructure would need to be developed to support a hydrogen car. |
| Posted by: A. Bungfodder 2004-10-11 6:13:52 PM |
| #7 Hybrid cars mileage don't match their hype and are not much better than gasoline engines. They certainly don't justify their price diffential. The crux of the matter is to drastically reduce oil as the fuel for transportation. The only practical way to do that are to: 1. Force everyone to drive Geo Metros. 2. Build several hundred nuclear plants and mass manufacture new electric cars (few people drive more than the range of an electric) or hydrogen cars (in the long term). Long haul transport can still use oil based fuels. Hybrid Mileage Comes Up Short Honda's Civic Hybrid is rated by the EPA to get 47 miles per gallon in the city, and 48 mpg on the highway. After nearly 1,000 miles of mostly city driving, Blackshaw was getting 31.4 mpg. ... Data from independent product-testing organization Consumer Reports indicates that hybrid cars get less than 60 percent of EPA estimates while navigating city streets. In Consumer Reports' real-world driving test, the Civic Hybrid averaged 26 mpg in the city, while the Toyota Prius averaged 35 mpg, much less than their respective EPA estimates of 47 and 60 mpg. Hybrid cars performed much closer to EPA estimates in Consumer Reports' highway tests. |
| Posted by: ed 2004-10-11 5:52:15 PM |
| #6 I don't believe in car mixin |
| Posted by: Sen Byrds 52 Chevy 2004-10-11 5:18:11 PM |
| #5 Two words, Benjamin: nuclear power. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-10-11 3:58:29 PM |
| #4 Buy a motorcycle. Then I can go ridin' with y'all. Well, at least when you're in California. :) |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-10-11 3:32:01 PM |
| #3 Couple of more features on the Dodge truck(called Contractors special).It also features a hydralic system that stores prasure upon brakeing for a stop,then release' the preasure to assit in acceleration.The truck also has an panel on the right rear that sports 110v electrical outlets. |
| Posted by: Raptor 2004-10-11 2:12:29 PM |
| #2 Not so fast. The Saudis know how the game works. If gas prices rise so fast that they cause a sharp increase in conservation and fuel-efficient car purchases, then OPEC will do all in its power to cause prices to come down sufficiently to kneecap the conservation/fuel-efficiency baby before it learns to stand on its own. We've been here before. Oil prices tanked in the 1990s, and Detroit's customers went right back to purchasing 12-mpg gas guzzlers again. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-10-11 12:02:33 PM |
| #1 good work, TW, it's all good. Whatever uses less oil gives less money to Saudi Wahhabists, which equals less money being used to radicalise muslims and train jihadis. it's all very good. |
| Posted by: Anon1 2004-10-11 11:54:42 AM |