Hybrid Powertrains... Pointless?

[hamish]

Batteries still aren't good enough, otherwise Toyota would be building electric cars instead of Hybrids. Batteries don't have anything like the energy density of a tank of diesel or petrol.

[Peter...]

Didn't GM have a completely electric car about ten/fifteen years ago? The EV1 or something? You would've thought some progress had been made...

[trent from punchy]

diesel has come a long way...

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2005..._bests_hy.html

[smellytofu]

Didn't GM have a completely electric car about ten/fifteen years ago? The EV1 or something? You would've thought some progress had been made...

Yes, and then GM took them all back.

[rowdytoot]

My mate who works for Lexus went to their internal drive day/launch of the GS450h, and he reckoned the punch off the line was insane compared to the non Hybrid... worth it for the traffic light GP!..

Reckons it was a heap of fun to try and pick the kick in point for the engine based on speed and throttle position...

Rowds

[GTSBoy]

If batteries were good enough to run cars then they wouldn't be putting methanol tanks in laptops.

[hamish]

We'll know batteries are good enough when we see electric planes.

[smellytofu]

Here we go .. a copy and paste of the Go-auto today

"With the projected numbers of hybrids hitting
the street, the issue of recycling also becomes
more acute as some of the first-generation
Priuses in some markets will be reaching their
use-by dates.

Priuses have been on sale here since 2001 and
Toyota Australia has an agreement to recycle
hybrid batteries from its Prius and Lexus GS450h
with a third-party supplier company based in
France.

Toyota says the batteries will be recycled,
rather than used in landfill. The nickel metal
hydride battery packs have a 10-year minimum
lifecycle, with a five-year warranty on the battery
packs themselves. Toyota has so far reported no
incidents with the battery packs, or failures.

[GTSBoy]

"Toyota has so far reported no
incidents with the battery packs, or failures."

That's because they are not manufactured in China yet. Give it a few years.

[smellytofu]

That's because they are not manufactured in China yet. Give it a few years.

Well, the cars are being built in the US and Japan... we'll see these whingers come in with US built Camry hybrids squeal.. or cheer.

[BENN0]

My mate who works for Lexus went to their internal drive day/launch of the GS450h, and he reckoned the punch off the line was insane compared to the non Hybrid... worth it for the traffic light GP!..

Rowds

Electric motors have no torque "curve". Just a horizontal line. There is only max torque!

Reminds me of a certain uni's solar car which destroyed its rather expensive carbon fibre wheels due to an overzealous student enjoying the torque. Popped the rear tyres and kept driving........

[rj_astra]

I'd like to see the engine in a stripped out Echo with no radio, no aircon, minimal interior, etc.

why? not sure what the point of this is. Seeing as no one would buy a vehicle like that.

Yaris/Echo is available overseas with a diesel.

We could easily cover the CO2 emission of vehicles if we reduced the greenhouse gases (methane) coming out of cows arses! Become a vegetarian and save the world (lol).

There seems to be a fixation on C02 emissions from vehicles when the probablility of getting any significant reductions via new car designs in the near future is low.
Easy way to reduce emissions is to DRIVE your car less. Immediate results.

If I am not mistaken there was a noticeable drop (8 percent??) in fuel used in the past year. Maybe high prices are just what the doctor ordered

[Bulgogi]

I remember reading a story a couple of years back of some trucks utilising a similar method of capturing heat from brake energy, but reusing it as a hydraulic force to get the truck back up to speed from standstill without having to use the engine as much as it normally would.

I think BMW were also looking at capturing some of the heat in the exhaust pipes to use to produce steam to power a small onboard generator to provide extra energy for acceleration, but I'm not too sure if the added weight would offset it significantly.

My guess is these technologies will become more prevalent, but it will take time.

[hamish]

I thought the BMW idea was very interesting, as it does something with the ~ 60-70% of the energy in petrol, that is wasted as heat out the exhaust & radiator etc.

[08ESE]

had the jazz to 5.3L per 100kms, who needs a hybrid?