Question Living
Hybrid Cars: Do Cars Really Need to Look Like UFOs to Save Gas?
Peter Griffin September 19, 2008 19:22:24
- 63 answers
- Read all 74 comments
- +19 raves
It seems that the car engineer's law is "if you want a car with decent fuel economy, it should absolutely look like some sort of spacecraft"
Why can't we have a car, that looks like a car, that is a Hybrid?
Why can't we have a car, that looks like a car, that is a Hybrid?
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Undecided
Who cares? That Aptera up there has 300 MPG! Ill even drive a clown car if it had 300MPGView thread
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Yes. Aircraft Designers Must Be In Charge of the Hybrid Department
I'd be more happy with a pure electric car.
No. Why Not Make A Hybrid "Plug-In Device" Available For All Cars?
Undecided
No. Why Not Make A Hybrid "Plug-In Device" Available For All Cars?
i think all cars should be hybrids. that was a really good invention.
i wouldn't care what my car looked anyways as long as it's not killing the earth
No. Why Not Make A Hybrid "Plug-In Device" Available For All Cars?
Undecided
Undecided
No. Why Not Make A Hybrid "Plug-In Device" Available For All Cars?
Just putting a gas-electric hybrid powerplant inside a standard automobile body gives you no better gas mileage than simply dropping down to a four or six-cylinder engine from the V-8s we Americans know and love so well. My Subaru Legacy station wagon, for example, gets 30 mpg on the highway despite being a full-time four-wheel drive, four-door, mid-size automobile with a four-cylinder conventional gas engine. If we were willing to accept the decreased performance of our friend's Toyota Prius (which is OK on the highway until you need to go up and down hills), with its two-wheel drive gas-electric "synergy" drive (which is not a true hybrid), but gets between 40-50 mpg on the highway, we could probably get about 38-40 mpg.
Our friend is suffering from buyer's remorse now that Toyota is going to offer a "plug-in" option on next year's Prius hybrids.
Yes. Aircraft Designers Must Be In Charge of the Hybrid Department
Undecided
Undecided
If you look at GM's "hybrid" truck line, the first thing you notice is that you've spent extra money to get a full-size truck which gets 21mpg highway when you could have just gone for the six-cylinder regular gas engine and SAVED money.
Meanwhile, Toyota's Highlander Hybrid SUV http://www.edmunds.com/toyota... gets an EPA gas mileage of 33 mpg highway, or high 20s with really fast (faster than the standard Highlander) real-world performance, which should be making the GMC/Chevy team ask "How did they do THAT?" (The answer being that Toyota puts a CVT on the front axle combined with electrically powered rear wheels to give MORE power than the standard gas-only powerplant, and better mileage in town than on the highway).
This, by the way, is a vehicle that seats seven grown-ups and has enough power to support not only a very good performance envelope but DVD players for the passengers in the back two rows and other goodies. There are some handling concerns with th...
If you look at GM's "hybrid" truck line, the first thing you notice is that you've spent extra money to get a full-size truck which gets 21mpg highway when you could have just gone for the six-cylinder regular gas engine and SAVED money.
Meanwhile, Toyota's Highlander Hybrid SUV http://www.edmunds.com/toyota... gets an EPA gas mileage of 33 mpg highway, or high 20s with really fast (faster than the standard Highlander) real-world performance, which should be making the GMC/Chevy team ask "How did they do THAT?" (The answer being that Toyota puts a CVT on the front axle combined with electrically powered rear wheels to give MORE power than the standard gas-only powerplant, and better mileage in town than on the highway).
This, by the way, is a vehicle that seats seven grown-ups and has enough power to support not only a very good performance envelope but DVD players for the passengers in the back two rows and other goodies. There are some handling concerns with the Highlander Hybrid, and since the back two wheels are electric power-only, it doesn't give you the snow performance that the gas-only Highlander does, BUT for the mid-$30s, it's actually an impressive ride for the urban cowboys out there. If I had the bucks, I'd get one in preference to a gas-only Highlander OR a Prius.
Undecided
No. Why Not Make A Hybrid "Plug-In Device" Available For All Cars?
Undecided
Undecided
mwahaha
Undecided
Undecided
Yes. Aircraft Designers Must Be In Charge of the Hybrid Department
Undecided
Yes. Aircraft Designers Must Be In Charge of the Hybrid Department
No. Why Not Make A Hybrid "Plug-In Device" Available For All Cars?
Yes. Aircraft Designers Must Be In Charge of the Hybrid Department
No. Why Not Make A Hybrid "Plug-In Device" Available For All Cars?
http://www.coldwarremarketing... can hook you up with REAL tanks. Notice their lack of resemblance, even remotely, to hybrid car designs. Actually, the Swedish armor manufacturer Hagglunds has the SEP, a viable electric-drive hybrid armored personnel carrier that can take several hits from RPG-7 anti-tank missiles and keep on ticking. http://www.baesystems.com/Pro...
Undecided
Yes. Aircraft Designers Must Be In Charge of the Hybrid Department
Yes. Aircraft Designers Must Be In Charge of the Hybrid Department
Undecided
This hybrid car looks normal, but it's gas milage is no better than my 97 Oldsmobile (which is great). One of the reasons hybrids look so strange is because they want to make them more aerodynamic so that there is less wind resistance so that they don't have to use more energy pushing through the wind. The gas milage this hybrid gets is the best gas milage a traditionally designed car can probably get. To get better milage a car would have to be either very small, or very odd looking, or both.
Undecided
Yes. Aircraft Designers Must Be In Charge of the Hybrid Department
No. Why Not Make A Hybrid "Plug-In Device" Available For All Cars?
Undecided
And meh, I don't really care LOL! I reckon they're pretty funky, even for aliens :P
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Undecided
No. Why Not Make A Hybrid "Plug-In Device" Available For All Cars?
Americans, not being fools, realized that all three major American car manufacturers made well-upholstered trucks called "Suburbans" and "Expeditions" and "Dakotas" which were not subject to this CAFE fuel economy law, and stopped buying American cars. They started buying American TRUCKS, instead. The American people realized that their Fearless Leader rides around in a heavily-armored limo with run-flat tires and nice styling and decided that looked good to them, too.
But don't blame GWB for the failure of GM's electric car project. If there had ever been a market for electric cars (and I submit that the same power package from the Toyota Highlander Hybrid could deliver good gas mileage if installed in a Crown Victoria or a pre-1997 Chevy Impala SS while also giving better performance), Detroit would have delivered it.
If even now, a major car manufacturer put a hot gas-electric hybrid power package in a large car, we'd HAVE our electric car - as the "plug-...
Americans, not being fools, realized that all three major American car manufacturers made well-upholstered trucks called "Suburbans" and "Expeditions" and "Dakotas" which were not subject to this CAFE fuel economy law, and stopped buying American cars. They started buying American TRUCKS, instead. The American people realized that their Fearless Leader rides around in a heavily-armored limo with run-flat tires and nice styling and decided that looked good to them, too.
But don't blame GWB for the failure of GM's electric car project. If there had ever been a market for electric cars (and I submit that the same power package from the Toyota Highlander Hybrid could deliver good gas mileage if installed in a Crown Victoria or a pre-1997 Chevy Impala SS while also giving better performance), Detroit would have delivered it.
If even now, a major car manufacturer put a hot gas-electric hybrid power package in a large car, we'd HAVE our electric car - as the "plug-in only" power option for the hybrid. But the Federal government had to FORCE economical but UNSAFE cars down the public's gullet. That's not "democratic," it's "dictatorial."
Yes. Aircraft Designers Must Be In Charge of the Hybrid Department
No. Why Not Make A Hybrid "Plug-In Device" Available For All Cars?
Undecided
Undecided