[sustran] Re: Hybrid cars- article from IHT

Lee Schipper schipper at wri.org
Thu Apr 20 23:13:40 JST 2006


The hybrid piece first appeared in the NY TImes last Sunday. MAde many
good points.

Be careful, though. 50 MPG US in diesel, given that diesel has 12% more
energy that gasoline, is really 45 MPG gasoline. 

But no quesiton the Audi diesel is a great car. Whether it is a fuel
saver depends on whether diesel is underpriced as it has been in so many
countries, or priced close to gasoline, as is the case in the US or the
UK. Our study published in the Journal of Tranpsort Economics and Policy
in 2002 suggested that in the low diesel price countries, the diesel
fleet itself has no energy or CO2 savings relative to the gasoline fleet
because on a match pairs basis, diesels are somewhat heavier and more
powerful, driven so much more, selected in large part as "driving
extenders" rather than "fuel savers". Fold in the higher energy and CO2
content of diesel relative to gasoline, and there was little or no net
savings left in the late 1990s. Would be fund to update to 2003 but that
would take considerable work.

The article appeard in JTEP in May 2002. Happy to send pdf copies
(about 1 meg)

>>> etts at indigo.ie 4/19/2006 10:05:10 AM >>>
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 
  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' 
  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 

   

  Life in the green lane 
  Jamie Lincoln Kitman 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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