Experimental Hybrid Car - up to 250 mpg

[cyberhap]

Text

CORTE MADERA, Calif. - 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.


Pretty sweet stuff.

 

[intogamer]

:shocked:
but they look fugly

 

[mercanucaribe]

Why not just get an electric car that gets infinite miles per gallon? 😕

 

[Stunt]

Crazy!

Do you need 5 people in the car pedaling with their arms and legs?

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
Why not just get an electric car that gets infinite miles per gallon? 😕

 

[Stunt]

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
Why not just get an electric car that gets infinite miles per gallon? 😕

Hybrids are self sufficient. Most electricity in the US is generated by fossil fuels, making it that much more inefficient.

 

[Genx87]

Heh hybrids burn fossil fuels as well 🙂

However i think battery driven cars arent the answer either btw. It just moves the fossil fuel burning from the car to a huge coal plant.

 

[aplefka]

"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."

:roll: Ricer != Hot Rodder :roll:

 

[Zenmervolt]

Build a hybrid that handles like my 944, doesn't run out of battery juice driving through the rockies making it a 15 mph machine going up hills, and that looks like a real car and I'll start looking at them.

The Prius is routinely panned because it has the driving dynamics of a 15 year old Geo Metro.

ZV

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: Stunt

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
Why not just get an electric car that gets infinite miles per gallon? 😕

Hybrids are self sufficient. Most electricity in the US is generated by fossil fuels, making it that much more inefficient.

The car referred to in the link isn't self-sufficient.

 

[venk]

There are alternative power source out there other than fossil fuels (wind, water, nuclear, solar, etc). The problem is that they can't be shrunk down safley to work in a car. If you can just plug the car into recharge it, than you get around this problem. If you house was run by solar panels and you charged your car at the garage and it got 2500 miles per charge, than you are in great shape.

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: venk
There are alternative power source out there other than fossil fuels (wind, water, nuclear, solar, etc). The problem is that they can't be shrunk down safley to work in a car. If you can just plug the car into recharge it, than you get around this problem. If you house was run by solar panels and you charged your car at the garage and it got 2500 miles per charge, than you are in great shape.

Problem is that it takes a LOT of energy to move a car 2500 miles - way more than you can get into a battery bank. TONS more if you want radio. More if you want AC. More if you want ANYTHING. You'll NEVER get 2500 miles/recharge on our current technology - with the current "prototypes" you're lucky to get to work on one charge.

 

[OffTopic1]

Originally posted by: Genx87
Heh hybrids burn fossil fuels as well 🙂

However i think battery driven cars arent the answer either btw. It just moves the fossil fuel burning from the car to a huge coal plant.

Electricity plants are much more efficient at converting fossil fuel into electricity/kinetic energy than cars.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: OffTopic

Originally posted by: Genx87
Heh hybrids burn fossil fuels as well 🙂

However i think battery driven cars arent the answer either btw. It just moves the fossil fuel burning from the car to a huge coal plant.

Electricity plants are much more efficient at converting fossil fuel into electricity/kinetic energy than cars.

And you're neglecting the fact that batteries are not exactly paragons of efficiency themselves. Plus they consume a lot of energy in production and are rather severely hazardous to dispose of.

ZV

 

[Stunt]

Originally posted by: OffTopic

Originally posted by: Genx87
Heh hybrids burn fossil fuels as well 🙂

However i think battery driven cars arent the answer either btw. It just moves the fossil fuel burning from the car to a huge coal plant.

Electricity plants are much more efficient at converting fossil fuel into electricity/kinetic energy than cars.

Have any proof of this?
Manufacture of powerplants, electric cars, batteries, distrobution loss, efficiency vs. hybrid cars, oil extraction/cost, efficiency.

Fairly complex assumption to be making.

 

[Ricemarine]

I guess we'll have to wait until hydrogen fuel cells gets released into commercial cars.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: Ricemarine
I guess we'll have to wait until hydrogen fuel cells gets released into commercial cars.

Honda just started.

http://www.autoweek.com/news.cms?newsId=102701

ZV

 

[everman]

I'm a strong proponent of the infinite improbability drive myself.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: everman
I'm a strong proponent of the infinite improbability drive myself.

"Ford, I feel like a sofa."

ZV

 

[OffTopic1]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing

Originally posted by: venk
There are alternative power source out there other than fossil fuels (wind, water, nuclear, solar, etc). The problem is that they can't be shrunk down safley to work in a car. If you can just plug the car into recharge it, than you get around this problem. If you house was run by solar panels and you charged your car at the garage and it got 2500 miles per charge, than you are in great shape.

Problem is that it takes a LOT of energy to move a car 2500 miles - way more than you can get into a battery bank. TONS more if you want radio. More if you want AC. More if you want ANYTHING. You'll NEVER get 2500 miles/recharge on our current technology - with the current "prototypes" you're lucky to get to work on one charge.

Depends on how big/heavy the cars are, but there are prototypes that will get you 110 miles to a single charge. 2500 miles is possible on a single charge but the vehicle is going to be very large. However, not too many people can travel that distant in one go, therefore a much smaller set of battery bank would require if it allow to recharge every 500 miles or 8 hours.

MagLev trains are clean and efficient that runs hundreds of miles with out the need to be plug-in. The Chinese currently have a maglev train that zip along a 18 miles track in 7 ½ minutes, and they are adding an extra 110 miles to the track. At the present, California is proposing to have a 400 miles track that is similar to the Chinese maglev design.

It is possible to travel cleanly, cheaply and fast.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: Stunt

Originally posted by: OffTopic

Originally posted by: Genx87
Heh hybrids burn fossil fuels as well 🙂

However i think battery driven cars arent the answer either btw. It just moves the fossil fuel burning from the car to a huge coal plant.

Electricity plants are much more efficient at converting fossil fuel into electricity/kinetic energy than cars.

Have any proof of this?
Manufacture of powerplants, electric cars, batteries, distrobution loss, efficiency vs. hybrid cars, oil extraction/cost, efficiency.

Fairly complex assumption to be making.

I think he's just talking about the fact that coal-powered plants are about 50-60% efficient at converting fuel into electricity, whereas conventional ICEs top out at about 25-50% converting gasoline to kinetic energy.

 

[Stunt]

I realize what he is saying, that's why I want him to show me considering all the factors.

 

[venk]

Originally posted by: OffTopic

Originally posted by: EyeMWing

Originally posted by: venk
There are alternative power source out there other than fossil fuels (wind, water, nuclear, solar, etc). The problem is that they can't be shrunk down safley to work in a car. If you can just plug the car into recharge it, than you get around this problem. If you house was run by solar panels and you charged your car at the garage and it got 2500 miles per charge, than you are in great shape.

Problem is that it takes a LOT of energy to move a car 2500 miles - way more than you can get into a battery bank. TONS more if you want radio. More if you want AC. More if you want ANYTHING. You'll NEVER get 2500 miles/recharge on our current technology - with the current "prototypes" you're lucky to get to work on one charge.

Depends on how big/heavy the cars are, but there are prototypes that will get you 110 miles to a single charge. 2500 miles is possible on a single charge but the vehicle is going to be very large. However, not too many people can travel that distant in one go, therefore a much smaller set of battery bank would require if it allow to recharge every 500 miles or 8 hours.

Well there would be some fuel involved. Thats where 250 mpg comes in. 😉

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: OffTopic

Originally posted by: EyeMWing

Originally posted by: venk
There are alternative power source out there other than fossil fuels (wind, water, nuclear, solar, etc). The problem is that they can't be shrunk down safley to work in a car. If you can just plug the car into recharge it, than you get around this problem. If you house was run by solar panels and you charged your car at the garage and it got 2500 miles per charge, than you are in great shape.

Problem is that it takes a LOT of energy to move a car 2500 miles - way more than you can get into a battery bank. TONS more if you want radio. More if you want AC. More if you want ANYTHING. You'll NEVER get 2500 miles/recharge on our current technology - with the current "prototypes" you're lucky to get to work on one charge.

Depends on how big/heavy the cars are, but there are prototypes that will get you 110 miles to a single charge. 2500 miles is possible on a single charge but the vehicle is going to be very large. However, not too many people can travel that distant in one go, therefore a much smaller set of battery bank would require if it allow to recharge every 500 miles or 8 hours.

So. What happens when there's a fscking hurricane and the power goes out here for 3 days again? Still expected to go to work - school - etc. But the car isn't going anywhere.

And remember -batteries don't weigh nothing. The more of them you put in there, the more it's going to take to move it. It's terribly inefficient to do it that way when you could slap a half-ton hydrogen system in instead and get the same end result except without all the demented hassle.

 

[cyberhap]

Hydrogen fuel cells would be terrific, but those cars are so expensive at the moment, and they don't see full-scale feasibility until at least 2010.

Hopefully a technology such as this will be something the public embraces.