^^^ You can partly blame Dr. Clotaire Rapaille, mentioned at The Thrill Of The SUV - CBS News. Also from Transcript | The Persuaders | FRONTLINE | PBS I'd seen both of these pieces on TV before. I even posted about the latter at Frontline: The Persuaders - TiVo Community and liked it.
I don't see the monstrous SUVs in the top 50 sales chart for 2010, except the Tahoe is on it. Lot of full size pickups on the top 50 like F-series, Silverado, Ram and their counterpart names with GMC. Only advanced tech car on top 50 is Prius at about #16. Amazing. Just looked up the tailpipe + upstream GHG on Fuel Economy. for Prius, it's 228g/mi. Leaf is 120 g/mi (in 94587 zip code) Camry is 428 g/mi, 6-cyl F-150 is 614 g/mi .... Prius is a very clean car for a car that burns gas.
...could not locate that data on Fuel Economy.gov...I thought that Prius and Leaf were about equal GHG at national average elec power fuel mix.
Sorry, that is 120 g/mi for Leaf in our area, 94587 Zip code. 230 for national average, so yes they are equal. select 2011 Leaf Compare Side-by-Side Energy and Emissions > Show > tailpipe and upstream GHG > calculate > zip code > turn crank I guess Leaf has higher emissions back East. For Plug-in hybrid, they show emissions for electric and seperate for gas. Have to because they don't know how much electric or gas you'll be doing.
Volvo V70 AWD diesel: 12kM a year, 2500$ roadtax and 2500$ diesel a year (diesel about 4/5th the price of gasoline). Honda Pan European motorcycle: 8kM a year, 150$ roadtax, $1500 gasoline a year. So total about 20kM and $6650 a year, family of 5 with 3 kids under 10. The motorcycle has been replaced by the Prius due to illness, but fuelefficiency is the same and the Prius has no roadtax :cheer2up to 2015) so nothing changes costwise. I'm keeping the motorcycle as I hope to be able to drive it again, but don't worry, the Prius is not going anywhere...
Some Hollywood movies can be pretty stupid. I'm watching this lousy flick someone mentioned (didn't finish watching, blech) ... 'Friends with Benefits' (don't waste $2) .... there's a scene with this 20 something Bimbo changing clothes in a massive Black SUV taxi, she's on the phone talking about picking up someone from the airport from LA and tells her friend 'I'm going to pick him up in a hybrid. I figure being from LA, he's into that bulls&^t' So we have a scene showing off the supersized, Black (of course) SUV, then dissing 'hybrids'. Pretty lame and stupid IMO. One would seem to be a real ahole to not give a crap about using up non-renewable resources at twice the rate necessary.
^^^ LOL! I rented that movie. IIRC, I thought it was ok and I don't remember the scene. Natalie Portman is easy on the eyes... Unfortunately, w/the insane # of monstrosity class (full-sized) SUVs running around where I live, it seems there are a LOT of aholes here. Worse yet, it's not that rare that I see fuel economy testing exempt uber-monstrosities like the Hummer H2 and Ford Excursion running around, of course driven solo or w/minimal passengers. I don't think I've seen any carrying cargo.
It's very simple, really: It's all about the battery. When battery costs drop 50% to 60%, it's game over for the internal combustion engine. At those costs, we get the 450 mile range at a low price. And battery replacement becomes affordable. And the besides the battery, there is virtually zero maintenance and virtually nothing to break. No pistons, rods, valves, spark plugs, belts, oil pump, oil filters, oil changes, ignition, no clutch, no transmission, no muffler... there are about 2,000 fewer moving parts and virtually no high temperature moving parts. In ten years, the internal combustion engine car may be on its way out, and it could be gone entirely in 20 years.
...thats wishful thinking, but if EV out-competes ICE fair-and-square and really is better/cheaper, then there will be no debate. Currently there is some debate because it is not clear the above vision is scientifically attainable.
Oh, I seriously doubt that. There's a whole lot of money and employment in the parts, service and oil industries, and they won't go down without a massive fight to the finish.
edit - Some info for question below - http://green.autoblog.com/2011/09/30/nissan-addresses-leaf-battery-life-replacement-costs/ I have some questions for the Leafers, like - the battery is expected to lose about 20% range in about 8 years, right? And at that point, it may be desirable to replace the whole thing. Does anyone have a cost range for a 24kWh battery in 8 years or so? This is not a 'minor detail'. Some Prius owners seem to get a little upset when the time has come to replace the much smaller traction battery. Perhaps building a battery replacement personal savings account would ease the pain when the time comes.
we averaged about 48Kmi (77kM) a year in last 18 years. Last year it was probably ~42,000 as my wife takes a commuter bus to work. Spend ~3900$ on gas.. not bad, as avg family spends ~$4200 a year. All due to Prius and commuter bus. Taxes vary by state.. in our state we only pay sales tax 6.5%, ($1500 for Prius) and registration ~180$ biannual. Some places have annual taxes as high as $4.57 per $100 (~1100$ for Prius, more on V70). But 2 year 4month old Prius has 71Kmi (114kM), it will not last as long. So if you take tax out spending is a wash, if you include tax you spend more, if include car cost amortization you probably loose. BTW Pan European (ST1300) is a pig to ride in traffic, and too wide to filter on. I'll go back to riding bike soon since part of my work commute will be on paid road, with cost ~1$ per mile in rush hour. Bikes get free access
I wouldn't hold my breath. It's taken over a decade for hybrids to get traction in the US market...and people still bellyache about our being the automotive disadvantaged minorities that should qualify for "special" parking, lanes of traffic, tax breaks, etc. I remember when I was a kid in the 60's. They said that jet aircraft were so much better than piston (and now turboprop) aircraft that by the year 2000, aircraft propellers would be as old fashioned as using a crank to start a car. 2000 was 12 years ago. These things take time. I'm sure that EVs will have thier day in the sun, but only on the strength of their own merit. Who knows? A fuel cell car might be just around the corner. How about LPG? Or maybe even some bolt-on technology that will allow folks to continue to drive (what they consider to be) proper sized cars? Put your flame thrower back in your pocket. I have 2 motorcycles, so I have no automotive Napoleon complex. I'm just saying that the ICE has been around for a while. It might take a little while to get rid of them---OR---somebody may come up with an emissions free ICE. Portable outgass sequestration?
Mila Kunis... not Natalie portman, though both are 'easy on the eyes'. I remember that scene and it me chuckle a little. The other movie where a hybrid (Prius) is dissed is 'the other guys' but again funny movie with will ferral. But as far as the whole discussion goes... I think the biggest problem with EV's and Hybrids is the cost. When I go look at cars even the dealers ward me away from the hybrids... Asking me why I want to spend that much money. etc etc. I almost have to convince them why hybrids are better. The lack of knowledge pays a part... but in all honesty people buy what they know and trust and ICE vehicles have been around too much for something to change so fast. But when gas prices go up and EV/Hybrid prices go down.... then we will finally get some traction. =)
...wow Cyclo you do get around! Prius is great for you. Wonder if, on average, us in the Northeast put more miles per year on our cars? Your post reminds me I wanted to add up my household energy use/costs for 2011 and see how gaso compares elec and nat gas. I suspect the Prius has my gaso well under control, but I might be embarrassed to share my elec use with the PV'ers here.
...does the Prius NiMH battery also have segments that can be replaced individually if they go bad? Could have sworn my salesman told me that in 2006.
America will see just how much if Republican US house of rep. Mike Kelly gets any traction or support in HR 3768 ending all vehicle tax incentives. He owns a chevrolet dealership in i believe PA. and hates the Volt with a passion. You see what i meant about people connected with GM and Chevrolet not at all on board and not all in. Crap like this hurts all new technologies and every hybrid/plug in/electric not just the volt. The numbers are growing of people like this what a shame.
From what I hear they are clusters of individual cells, so if you find someone who knows what he's doing, then he can replace a cluster or even individual cells. As said, you get around... What's the tax for? Is the 6.5% purchase tax? I didn't put that in: all taxes are included in consumerprices (19% sales + 40% cartax on cars, but again, Prius is exempt from the 40% special cartax, compare to the USA tax-incentive of 7500$, and ~0.80€ fuel duty per liter and 19% tax is also included in the fuelprice mentioned by me). Roadtax is just harassment by the government: you have to pay for owning a vehicle instead of the logical choice to have people only pay for actually driving it (we do that too quite severely...) And the annual "$4.57 per $100", is that based on the purchaseprice? That's as steep and illogical as our roadtax... which btw is based on weight (and fueltype, hence the diesel Volvo costing twice that of a pertol one and 130% of a natural-gas-version). And SUV's are NOT exempt... (Unless they are a business car without back seats and you actually own a business, some crew-cab-pick-ups or vans actually also fall under this rule) At least I know my government spends all this tax well! Like forking it over to Greece who've been scamming the rest of Europe for a decade... Sorry. :focus: Mine's a '94 1100, no problems riding it in traffic, with ABS and TRACTIONCONTROL, almost 10 years before BMW and Ducati were willywaving about it Never understood why they dropped it on the 1300 out:
