[Paleopsych] 250 miles per gallon? They're doing it

Sun Aug 21 15:26:05 UTC 2005

Note that burning coal to make electricity to move a car engine is less 
energy efficient and more polluting than burning gas in that engine.

Christian

Gerry Reinhart-Waller wrote:
> It is a good first step.  That I agree with.
> Hybids are a wave of the future.  But there are many other waves that 
> need to follow.
> 
> 
> Gerry Reinhart-Waller
> 
> 
> 
> Steve Hovland wrote:
> 
>> These ideas can be applied on a wider scale.
>>
>> Here's a car we saw in Europe:
>>
>>
>>
>> This is the future in America :-)
>>
>> Steve Hovland
>> www.stevehovland.net
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From:    Gerry Reinhart-Waller [SMTP:waluk at earthlink.net]
>> Sent:    Monday, August 15, 2005 6:14 PM
>> To:    The new improved paleopsych list
>> Subject:    Re: [Paleopsych] 250 miles per gallon? They're doing it
>>
>> Well and good, Steve.  But one robin does not a springtime make.  Even 
>> if it is parked in your garage.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Gerry Reinhart-Waller
>>
>>
>> Steve Hovland wrote:
>>
>>  
>>
>>> Tinkerers fiddle with hybrids to increase efficiency
>>>
>>> Bottom of Form 1
>>> CORTE MADERA, California (AP) -- Politicians and automakers say a car 
>>> that can both reduce greenhouse gases and free America from its 
>>> reliance on foreign oil is years or even decades away.
>>> Ron Gremban says such a car is parked in his garage.
>>> It looks like a typical Toyota Prius hybrid, but in the trunk sits an 
>>> 80-miles-per-gallon secret -- a stack of 18 brick-sized batteries 
>>> that boosts the car's high mileage with an extra electrical charge so 
>>> it can burn even less fuel.
>>> Gremban, an electrical engineer and committed environmentalist, spent 
>>> several months and $3,000 tinkering with his car.
>>> Like all hybrids, his Prius increases fuel efficiency by harnessing 
>>> small amounts of electricity generated during braking and coasting. 
>>> The extra batteries let him store extra power by plugging the car 
>>> into a wall outlet at his home in this San Francisco suburb -- all 
>>> for about a quarter.
>>> He's part of a small but growing movement. "Plug-in" hybrids aren't 
>>> yet cost-efficient, but some of the dozen known experimental models 
>>> have gotten up to 250 mpg.
>>> They have support not only from environmentalists but also from 
>>> conservative foreign policy hawks who insist Americans fuel terrorism 
>>> through their gas guzzling.
>>> And while the technology has existed for three decades, automakers 
>>> are beginning to take notice, too.
>>> So far, DaimlerChrysler AG is the only company that has committed to 
>>> building its own plug-in hybrids, quietly pledging to make up to 40 
>>> vans for U.S. companies. But Toyota Motor Corp. officials who 
>>> initially frowned on people altering their cars now say they may be 
>>> able to learn from them.
>>> "They're like the hot rodders of yesterday who did everything to soup 
>>> up their cars. It was all about horsepower and bling-bling, lots of 
>>> chrome and accessories," said Cindy Knight, a Toyota spokeswoman. 
>>> "Maybe the hot rodders of tomorrow are the people who want to get in 
>>> there and see what they can do about increasing fuel economy."
>>>
>>> Plugged or unplugged?
>>> The extra batteries let Gremban drive for 20 miles with a 50-50 mix 
>>> of gas and electricity. Even after the car runs out of power from the 
>>> batteries and switches to the standard hybrid mode, it gets the 
>>> typical Prius fuel efficiency of around 45 mpg. As long as Gremban 
>>> doesn't drive too far in a day, he says, he gets 80 mpg.
>>> "The value of plug-in hybrids is they can dramatically reduce 
>>> gasoline usage for the first few miles every day," Gremban said. "The 
>>> average for people's usage of a car is somewhere around 30 to 40 
>>> miles per day. During that kind of driving, the plug-in hybrid can 
>>> make a dramatic difference."
>>>
>>> Gremban promotes the CalCars Initiative, a volunteer effort 
>>> encouraging automakers to make plug-in hybrids.
>>> Backers of plug-in hybrids acknowledge that the electricity to boost 
>>> their cars generally comes from fossil fuels that create greenhouse 
>>> gases, but they say that process still produces far less pollution 
>>> than oil. They also note that electricity could be generated cleanly 
>>> from solar power.
>>> Gremban rigged his car to promote the nonprofit CalCars Initiative, a 
>>> San Francisco Bay area-based volunteer effort that argues automakers 
>>> could mass produce plug-in hybrids at a reasonable price.
>>> But Toyota and other car companies say they are worried about the 
>>> cost, convenience and safety of plug-in hybrids -- and note that 
>>> consumers haven't embraced all-electric cars because of the 
>>> inconvenience of recharging them like giant cell phones.
>>> Automakers have spent millions of dollars telling motorists that 
>>> hybrids don't need to be plugged in, and don't want to confuse the 
>>> message.
>>> Nonetheless, plug-in hybrids are starting to get the backing of 
>>> prominent hawks like former CIA director James Woolsey and Frank 
>>> Gaffney, President Reagan's undersecretary of defense. They have 
>>> joined Set America Free, a group that wants the government to spend 
>>> $12 billion over four years on plug-in hybrids, alternative fuels and 
>>> other measures to reduce foreign oil dependence.
>>> Gaffney, who heads the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Security 
>>> Policy, said Americans would embrace plug-ins if they understood 
>>> arguments from him and others who say gasoline contributes to 
>>> oil-rich Middle Eastern governments that support terrorism.
>>> "The more we are consuming oil that either comes from places that are 
>>> bent on our destruction or helping those who are ... the more we are 
>>> enabling those who are trying to kill us," Gaffney said.
>>>
>>> Now vs. later
>>> DaimlerChrysler spokesman Nick Cappa said plug-in hybrids are ideal 
>>> for companies with fleets of vehicles that can be recharged at a 
>>> central location at night. He declined to name the companies buying 
>>> the vehicles and said he did not know the vehicles' mileage or cost, 
>>> or when they would be available.
>>> Others are modifying hybrids, too.
>>> Monrovia-based Energy CS has converted two Priuses to get up to 230 
>>> mpg by using powerful lithium ion batteries. It is forming a new 
>>> company, EDrive Systems, that will convert hybrids to plug-ins for 
>>> about $12,000 starting next year, company vice president Greg Hanssen 
>>> said.
>>> University of California, Davis, engineering professor Andy Frank 
>>> built a plug-in hybrid from the ground up in 1972 and has since built 
>>> seven others, one of which gets up to 250 mpg. They were converted 
>>> from non-hybrids, including a Ford Taurus and Chevrolet Suburban.
>>> Frank has spent $150,000 to $250,000 in research costs on each car, 
>>> but believes automakers could mass-produce them by adding just $6,000 
>>> to each vehicle's price tag.
>>> Instead, Frank said, automakers promise hydrogen-powered vehicles 
>>> hailed by President Bush and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, even though 
>>> hydrogen's backers acknowledge the cars won't be widely available for 
>>> years and would require a vast infrastructure of new fueling stations.
>>> "They'd rather work on something that won't be in their lifetime, and 
>>> that's this hydrogen economy stuff," Frank said. "They pick this kind 
>>> of target to get the public off their back, essentially."
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
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