Wired reports that Honda will unveil a new dedicated hybrid today that hits the 60 mpg mark and sell for $19,000.
While hybrids have tended to go upscale in price and equipment or relegated to high end SUV's, this market niche has more of a global vision aimed at neutralizing a price difference between a hybrid and traditional gas powered car.
Look for the car to go on sale next Spring.
J R writes greenmesh:
When looking for hybrid mileage information, ask what MPG is in Winter. My 3 year old (Toyota) Highlander gets 28-30 in Summer, but drops to 21-23 in Winter because the gas engine must run more often to provide heat for passengers. It was better the first Winter but refineries were forced to change additives and that made MPG worse.
The new federal mileage stickers (in effect after this vehicle was purchased) are a more realistic assessment of hybrid mileage. Everyone knew a Toyota Prius didn't get 60 mpg, but that was the law and the number was legal and every other manufacturer used the same standardized testing.
Ethanol reduces mileage. I have given up trying to fill up with pure gasoline because that option just doesn't seem to exist in the York area anymore. Every pump seems to sport the 10% mix with sayings like "enriched with ethanol" and pictures of corn stalks.
Corn based ethanol is a counterproductive alternative form of energy helping to increase food prices and lowering the national fleet fuel efficiency. Compared to gasoline and diesel, the gas mileage in ethanol is the least. Ethanol yields about 30% less gas mileage than gasoline. The stuff even takes more energy to produce from field to consumer than it is worth. Ask our politicians why they love it so much.
My neighbor Chuck says his Chevy pickup with a 6 liter V-8 gets 11 mpg whether he runs it hard or takes it easy. It's basically a simple, large displacement energy converter that doesn't strain or change it's operating function to adjust for load.
Hybrids use several tools to squeeze mileage out of a gallon of gas so mileage can vary widely.
Finish reading 'Hybrid mileage variations' »Some domestic hybrid vehicles I would love to see:
The hybrid car segment is maturing with some players just jointing the team. While some car makers refine their markets, other's blast forth with hopeful new hybrid concepts.
Honda, who is probably wishing they had a few 60+ mpg hybrid Honda Insight's (built from 1999-2006) to sell will introduce a new $19K dedicated hybrid car that looks very much like a Toyota Prius and is expected to get 60 mpg. Cheaper to buy and more miles per gallon than a current Prius.
Honda is going to execute this by using platform parts from the tiny Honda Fit with a smaller Integrated Motor Assist engine assembly than is in the current Civic Hybrid.
I always wonder why cars like The Honda Fit (28 city/34 highway mpg) and the Smart car (33 mpg city and 40 mpg) don't get better mileage. If a Chevy Impala can get 30 on the highway, why can't a super tiny car get better mileage than 34. I could get 30 mpg out of a 6-cyl 1968 Plymouth Valiant built 40 years ago and it was a crude, clumsy chunk of car.
The Prius itself, around for a decade, will morph into a bigger, more powerful car yet promises a few more mpg than the current Prius.
Something dopey happens to small, efficient cars on long production runs. They often get larger and dumber. Lets hope Toyota doesn't wreck a good thing.
GM and Chrysler...
Finish reading 'Hybrid/green car marketing doesn't always make sense' »My Ross bicycle had some cool engine noises. On a normal day, two cards attached with wooden clothespins made it a "two-cylinder". When I was in the mood for more power, I attached four. Using six cards usually resulted in complete "engine" failure with cards and pins flying all over the place.
A study at the University of California found that blindfolded volunteers could hear a petrol or diesel car from 36ft away, but they did not hear a Prius until it was just 11ft from them.The engine sound is played through a waterproof loudspeaker next to the car's radiator, with the pitch and frequency helping to identify the vehicle's distance and speed.
The front-facing speakers mean that once the car has passed, the sound is no longer heard.
The system will operate all the time in electric-only vehicles, but in hybrids, it only operates when the car is using electric power.
www.telegraph.co.uk
As many Harley-Davidson riders with screaming eagle after market exhaust pipes will tell you, loud pipes save lives.
Volkswagen AG. has started testing a new electricity-powered car engine and expects to launch the first cars fitted with it by 2010, chief executive Martin Winterkorn said.
VW said the technology allows cars to run on purely electricity powered engine for a distance of up to 50 kilometers (31 miles). hemscott.com
"While the e-motor on a typical hybrid model just supplements the combustion engine, the exact opposite is true on Twin Drive," Winterkorn said during the car's unveiling in Berlin. "Here the diesel or gasoline engine supplements the e-motor." Start-stop technology will save power and regenerative braking will help generate it. wired.com
It has a 100 cc engine, zips smoothly through traffic, can cruise up to 55mph, gets close to 100 mpg and has a price point under $3000. It has the support network of Harley dealerships in most every major town and people want to buy it because it's a domestically produced scooter that is designed by us to help us get ourselves out of a fuel crisis.
Ok, I know this doesn't exist and people will tell me labor costs are too high here to build something that cheap and it doesn't fit the Harley image... but Harley has made everything from golf carts to bomb casings and Holiday Rambler recreational vehicles.
A flag waving on a domestically produced, super-economy machine would bring a new found smile to many.
Toyota has developed a new fuel cell hybrid, powered by hydrogen, that can travel more than twice the distance of its predecessor model without filling up, the automaker said today.
The improved model's maximum cruising range is 516 miles compared with 205 miles. Fuel efficiency in the FCHV-adv was improved 25 percent. The new fuel cell vehicle can also start and run in temperatures as low as minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit. Cold temperatures are a big technological hurdle for fuel cells.
The vehicle will be available for leasing in Japan later this year. Rival Honda Motor Co.'s revamped fuel cell vehicle for leasing in California is rolling off a Japanese factory floor later this month.
(AP)
The internal combustion engine driving your car is a pretty inefficient method of converting energy into motion. Friction from air resistance and motion along with heat dissipated from burning fuel all take your money in exchange for nothing. That car heater sure feels great in January, but most of the time that engine heat is lost to the atmosphere while we all do our part heating the outdoors.
Loughborough University and the University of Sussex, both in the UK, has concluded that using waste heat from light-duty vehicle engines in a steam power cycle could deliver fuel economy advantages of between 6.3% and 31.7% greencarcongress.com
The idea of pushing energy into water and creating steam is nothing new. Railroads built this nation with the steam engine, however paying a premium for energy has reawakened this old trick.
Clean Power Technologies claims to have successfully achieved a 40% reduction in vehicle fuel consumption.
Other uses for exhaust energy recovery is truck refrigeration. Traditionally, a small combustion engine uses fuel to cool the trailer during transport. A steam hybrid system would take wasted heat from exhaust gas and created steam that would power refrigeration.
Abdul Mitha, CEO, and Mike Burns, CTO, of CPT demonstrated a steam engine running on the free energy recovered from the exhaust of a Caterpillar truck engine and explained the 80% fuel savings achievable in refrigerated trailer applications. tradingmarkets.com
Honda Motor Co said today that it will launch its planned dedicated hybrid sedan in Japan, North America and Europe in early 2009.
The dedicated hybrid body design will likely look like the hydrogen fueled Honda Clarity. Chief Executive Takeo Fukui also said that a gasoline-electric hybrid version of the Honda Fit is expected. Honda has been working to drastically reduce production costs of their hybrid drive systems to narrow the premium difference between a gas only powered vehicle. reuters.com
I headed down to Durham, North Carolina for a graduation over the weekend. I was trying to squeeze the most mileage I could out of a 2005 Civic Hybrid with a manual transmission with 65,000 miles on it. I think 56.7 miles per gallon might be a record for me.
My secret formula: Use cruise control and set it to 65. I did have the impossible to recreate advantage of no traffic jams on Interstate 95.
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