150 mpg car?

[BobC]

150 mpg car?

Watch video
http://www.wfsb.com/video/15860247/index.html

[Rick TYler]

The inventor's argument is that manual control of a hybrid car will result in better overall fuel economy than the computer-controlled system provided by the manufacturer. Maybe, but I'm not buying it. Here's the link for my fellow skeptics: http://www.99mpg.com/mima/mimaintroduction/. My money's on the computer for overall performance, emissions regulation, and economy.

[MrForbes]

Big deal....when I was in college in the early 80s, the winner of the SAE high mileage competition got almost 1500 mpg.

The hard part is getting people in the US to drive very small, light cars.

Rick--also you have to consider the legal implications of manual control by folks who don't really understand what's going on in their car, which is most of the population.

[Bongle]

That's kind of cool, though I wonder how many cycles his battery will last now that he has foregone the computerized battery monitoring. Don't Lead-Acid batteries lose their ability to recharge fairly quickly if you drain them all the way repeatedly?

[Team 1708 Dave]

I know this really dosn't fit here...but. Can someone tell me how to start a NEW thread? I'v found info on everything BUT how to start a thread.

Thanks..Dave

[Coach Norm]

Originally Posted by Team 1708 Dave

I know this really dosn't fit here...but. Can someone tell me how to start a NEW thread? I'v found info on everything BUT how to start a thread.

Thanks..Dave

Click on the Portal/Forum button at the top on the tool bar. Go to the appropriate subject and you will find a new thread button at the bottom left of the page.

[Team 1708 Dave]

That wasn't hard..lol. I just couldn't find any info on how to do it. Thanks Again

[Qbranch]

I have to say, sometimes I wish my Ford Escape Hybrid had an option to shift through varying amounts of automatic and manual control of the hybrid components of the vehicle. On the positive however, It's probably the best hybrid system for efficient logic I've seen... mine regularly gets 40mpg in the summer, and still manages 28mpg in the dead of winter.

However, I've found the Toyota Highlander Hybrid my mom drives much more eh... bothersome. It RARELY runs in electric only, and you pretty much have to blow on the accelerator if you want it to stay in electric even for a tiny bit of time while coming out of a stop sign/red light. It does have an "EV" button, but when EV is engaged it only stays locked in for about a minute at low speeds (25mph).

Cars/Green Automotive things I'm looking forward to:

Aptera: http://aptera.com/
Hymotion BREMs: http://hymotion.com/
Chevy Volt: http://www.chevrolet.com/electriccar...ht_electriccar
Chvey Tahoe Hybrid (heaviest hybridized consumer vehicle to date): http://www.chevrolet.com/hybrid/?eva...MO2_LEARN_MORE

And... that's my green-blooded-vulcan showing.

Any other hybrid drivers in our midst?

-q

[artdutra04]

They had an indepth article on this guy in the Hartford Courant a year or two ago. The most intriguing thing I thought of was his manual override "clutch" for the hybrid system.

And while the computers in current technology are powerful and be able to perform very well, they still do not have nearly the same level of intelligence as humans have. I can easily see how having manual control of the hybrid threshold can easily boost gas mileage, just as how one can get better gas mileage via a manual transmission than an automatic.

I'm more skeptical of the fifth wheel, but I guess if one really does not want to start major modifications and a redesign of the chassis and powertrain, then I guess it's a decent compromise.

Which brings me back to always wondering why Detroit always insists on fighting new emission and environmental standards with lawyers instead of engineers...

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

Which brings me back to always wondering why Detroit always insists on fighting new emission and environmental standards with lawyers instead of engineers...

They fight the standards with lawyers, but meet them with engineers...

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by squirrel

They fight the standards with lawyers, but meet them with engineers...

It's the fighting part that just seems inane. These companies will launch hugely expensive lobbying and public relation campaigns to try to dissuade the public and government from tightening the standards, claiming that it is going to cost them too much to make the changes. I just love the irony of the situation.

Why not just cut to the chase and sink these millions of dollars straight into research and development to meet the new deadlines? Why not hire more engineers instead of more lawyers?

Like in the case of the electric cars in California, where GM claimed it would take too much money and time to develop fully electric cars, and yet little companies like Tesla Motors (with but a fraction of the resources of GM) come out and develop the Roadster from scratch in only a few years, with plans to expand into lower price and higher production cars within a decade.

Maybe it's just because I'm going to college for engineering that makes me biased towards engineers over lawyers. But the fact that what these car companies are claiming does not line up with what modern engineering is possible of doesn't help their situation.

[Protronie]

IMHO... you can keep your 150 mpg sardine cans.
I want a car I won't die in a collision with a shopping cart.
And being of an older generation that get a thrill hearing the raw muscle of a V-8 with a free flow exhaust.

Give me a 150mph car any day... if gas get too hard to come buy... I'll grow some corn and make some gas!

Better yet... why don't you wiz-kids come up with a diesel powered 150 mph car that I can burn used fry oil in

btw... having more user controlled applications for todays vehicles is a very unsafe idea... most users (they not good enough to be called drivers) are too busy text messaging their friends, chatting on the cel ph, or surfing their play list to be bothered with a little thing like signaling when they change lanes, never mind switching from gas to electric or shifting gears.

-p "the last V-8 driver in America"

[Bongle]

Give me a 150mph car any day... if gas get too hard to come buy... I'll grow some corn and make some gas!

And while you're doing it, you'll drive up food prices, use as much fossil fuels to grow your corn as you get out of it, cause the deforestation of enormous tracts of forest elsewhere (because of higher food prices, it becomes economically viable to clear sub-par agricultural land). Not that I'm a car-hating hippie (I'm actually entering the 24 hours of LeMons this summer), but us petrolheads are in a poor situation. At the very least, ethanol from corn doesn't seem to be the answer, no matter how much the farming lobby and first state in the primary process want it to be.

The Volt needs to arrive in a hurry, do everything it promises, and Nanosolar needs to coat every roof on the planet in cheap-like-paper solar cells so that cars like the Volt can get their energy from a clean source. Also, having ITER happen on-time, on-schedule, and above break-even wouldn't hurt either.

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

Like in the case of the electric cars in California, where GM claimed it would take too much money and time to develop fully electric cars, and yet little companies like Tesla Motors (with but a fraction of the resources of GM) come out and develop the Roadster from scratch in only a few years, with plans to expand into lower price and higher production cars within a decade.

1. The handful (as in "less than 20") of production Teslas that have been delivered to date have transmissions that the company has already said they would replace under warranty because of ultra-short life expectancy. To get even close to production, Tesla has had to request a waiver from current air bag rules. The vehicle is very late in shipping. Welcome to real-world engineering. Everything looks better in PowerPoint than it does in reality. To get even close to production, Tesla has had to request a waiver from current air bag rules.

2. This is a low-volume vehicle that costs $100,000. They may have "plans" to produce low-cost vehicles, but there is no evidence that they have the ability to do so.

3. The world is littered with the remains of low-volume, high-cost car makers. I'll bet you a dollar that Tesla is not making more than 1,000 units a year five years from now. The car industry is not for amateurs or the faint-hearted. I doubt Tesla has what it takes to compete with Toyota, Ford, Honda, VW, and GM in the world marketplace for cars that are as reliable, usable, and low-cost as the major manufacturers. They might -- just might -- hang on as a boutique provider of limited production toys for the rich.

The Prius and Hybrid Escape are far more reasonable views of the future than the Tesla.

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

Maybe it's just because I'm going to college for engineering that makes me biased towards engineers over lawyers. But the fact that what these car companies are claiming does not line up with what modern engineering is possible of doesn't help their situation.

Are you claiming that all those thousands of experienced engineers at Ford and Toyota could build a $15,000 electric car tomorrow with the range and capacity of a Honda Accord, but that they choose not to do so for non-technical reasons? That a manufacturer that could easily double their sales if you are right has rejected that option for some hidden, sinister motive? I think you need to think these things through a little bit. They aren't that stupid. Honest.