[sustran] Re: Hybrid cars- article from IHT

[Alan Howes]

Though of course, US gallons are 20%(?) smaller ... :-)
 
Which reminds me - is the UAE the only place where you can still buy
petrol (gasoline) in Imperial gallons?
 
Alan
 

  
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Alan Howes
Associate Transport Planner
Colin Buchanan 
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From:
sustran-discuss-bounces+alan.howes=cbuchanan.co.uk at list.jca.apc.org
[mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+alan.howes=cbuchanan.co.uk at list.jca.apc.
org] On Behalf Of Brendan Finn
Sent: 19 April 2006 15:05
To: Asia and the Pacific sustainable transport
Subject: [sustran] Re: Hybrid cars- article from IHT


Dear Carlos, 
 
It sounds like 40 mpg is considered some sort of breakthrough in the USA
- have I misunderstood? My wife's regular diesel Audi A4 consistently
averages 50 mpg across city and open road, better than cars used to be,
but we don't think it's anything special. 
 
I think this just reinforces your point about clever (or sneaky) "green"
branding by the auto industry.
 
With best wishes, 
 
 
Brendan.
________________________________________________________________________
_____________
>From Brendan Finn, ETTS Ltd.   e-mail : etts at indigo.ie   tel :
+353.87.2530286

	----- Original Message ----- 
	From: Carlos F. Pardo SUTP <mailto:carlos.pardo at sutp.org>  
	To: carfree_cities at yahoogroups.com ; 
WorldTransport-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com ; 
NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com ; sutp-asia at yahoogroups.com ; 'Asia and
the Pacific sustainable transport'
<mailto:sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org>  
	Sent: Monday, April 17, 2006 12:01 PM
	Subject: [sustran] Hybrid cars- article from IHT


	A nice, centered article about the reality of hybrid cars and
their "fuel efficiency"

	 

	Source: 
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/04/16/opinion/edkitman.php
<http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/04/16/opinion/edkitman.php> 

	 


	Life in the green lane 


	Jamie Lincoln Kitman
<http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?query=Jamie%20Lincoln%20Kitman&so
rt=swishrank>  The New York Times
	 
	MONDAY, APRIL 17, 2006

	 

	If you've gone to any auto show in the last year or so, you'll
know that hybrid cars are the hippest automotive fashion statement to
come along in years. They've become synonymous with the worthy goal of
reducing gasoline consumption and dependence on foreign oil and all that
this means for a better environment and more stable geopolitics. 

	 

	And yet like fat-free desserts, which sound healthy but can
still make you fat, the hybrid car can make people feel as if they're
doing something good, even when they're doing nothing special at all. As
consumers and governments at every level climb onto the hybrid
bandwagon, there is the very real danger of elevating the technology at
the expense of the intended outcome - saving gas. 

	 

	Few things these days say "environmentally aware consumer" so
loudly as the fuel-sipping Toyota Prius. With its two power sources -
one a gasoline- powered internal combustion engine, the other a
battery-driven electric motor - the best-selling Prius (and other
hybrids sold by Honda and Ford and due soon from several other car
makers) can go further on a gallon and emit fewer pollutants in
around-town use than most conventional automobiles because under certain
circumstances they run on battery power and consume less fuel. 

	 

	But just because a car has so-called hybrid technology doesn't
mean it's doing more to help the environment or to reduce the country's
dependence on imported oil any more than a non-hybrid car. There are
good hybrids and bad ones. Fuel-efficient conventional cars are often
better than hybrid sport-utility vehicles - just look at how many miles
per gallon the vehicle gets. 

	 

	Being a professional car-tester, which is to say a person who
gets asked for unpaid car-buying advice practically every day, I know
these distinctions have already been lost on many car buyers. And I fear
they're well on their way to being lost on our governments, too. 

	 

	Lately, people have been calling me and telling me they're
thinking about buying the Lexus 400H, a new hybrid SUV. When I tell them
that they'd get better mileage in some conventional SUVs, and even
better mileage with a passenger car, they protest, "But it's a hybrid!"
I remind them that the 21 miles per gallon I saw while driving the Lexus
400H is not particularly brilliant, efficiency-wise - hybrid or not.
Because the Lexus is a relatively heavy car and because its electric
motor is deployed to provide speed more than efficiency, it will never
be a mileage champ. 

	 

	The car that started the hybrid craze, the Toyota Prius, is
lauded for squeezing 40 or more miles out of a gallon of gas, and it
really can. But only when it's being driven around town. On a cross-
country excursion in a Prius, the staff of Automobile Magazine
discovered mileage plummeted on the Interstate. In fact, the car's
computer, which controls the engine and the motor, allowing them to run
together or separately, was programmed to direct the Prius to spend most
of its highway time running on gasoline because at higher speeds the
batteries quickly get exhausted. 

	 

	Indeed, the gasoline engine worked so hard that we calculated we
might have used less fuel on our journey if we had been driving Toyota's
conventionally powered, similarly sized Corolla - which costs thousands
less. 

	 

	For years, most of the world's big car makers have shied away
from building hybrids because while they are technologically intriguing,
they are also an inelegant engineering solution - the use of two energy
sources assures extra weight, extra complexity and extra expense (as
much as $6,000 more per car.) The hybrid car's electric battery packs
rob space from passengers and cargo and although they can be recycled,
not every owner can be counted on to do the right thing at the end of
their vehicle's service life. And an unrecycled hybrid battery pack,
which weighs more than 100 pounds, poses a major environmental hazard. 

	 

	So the ideal hybrid car is one that is used in town and
carefully disposed of at the end of its days. Hybrid taxis and buses
make enormous sense. But the market knows no such distinctions. People
think they want hybrids and they'll buy them, even if a conventional car
would make more sense. The danger is that the automakers will co- opt
the hybrids' green mantle and, with the help of a government looking to
bail out its troubled friends in Detroit, misguidedly encourage the sale
of hybrids without reference to their actual effect on oil consumption. 

	 

	Pro-hybrid laws and incentives sound nice, but they might just
end up subsidizing companies that have failed to develop truly
fuel-efficient vehicles at the expense of those that have had the
foresight to design their cars right in the first place. And they may
actually punish citizens who save fuel the old- fashioned way - by using
less of it, with smaller, lighter and more efficient cars. All the
while, they'll make a mockery of a potentially useful technology. 

	 

	(Jamie Lincoln Kitman is the New York bureau chief for
Automobile Magazine and a columnist for Top Gear, a British magazine.)

	
________________________________


	



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