Bob Lutz says Via Motors' X-Truck makes Prius look like a 'gas guzzler'

Assuming the above is correct, how is the below anything other that a blatant lie?

I doesn't drive like a Volt. It uses a buttload more electricity.

BTW, if it used one gallon for 30 miles with depleted batteries I would still be impressed... (read: I don't buy that either)

I don't know the history of Mr Lutz, so I lack the resentment (or love) for him, but his claims are of the variety that our Dutch trains do 10000mpg...
Oh, BTW, they are electric, but that's something I only put in the bylines at the bottom somewhere....

And I know I am a foreigner with lacking English language skills, but when someone claims 100mpg, I expect it to do 100 miles on one gallon, regardless of what official explanation of the term is, is that very wrong of me?

 

If you survey most of the Plug in Prius owners on this forum that use Fuelly badges you will notice that with only a few exceptions they all share their MPG using ONLY the gasoline and not counting the electricity consumed.

We have a somewhat national goal here in the US to reduce the consumption of gasoline, which is very well reflected in using MPG as the measure. We generally don't use gasoline or imported petroleum to make electricity.

I will agree that MPG is not reflective of the total consumption, but it is perhaps the most important in achieving a goal of reduced gasoline usage. For Bob Lutz, or anyone else, to use it in the context of how well a vehicle design addresses the goal is ok, IMO.

 

The words "need" and "Escalade" don't belong in the same paragraph. If someone wants an Escalade and can afford it and it's still legal, then more power to them

 

It's not wrong, but if you are expecting honesty from a car peddler, then you are setting yourself up for a major disappointment.

There is long history of builders and sellers of EVs and plug in hybrids making ridiculous MPG claims. Lutz is merely continuing that tradition.

 

Well, there really isn't a general site that handles plug-ins effectively for vanity stat sigs.

VIA is just doing this and in particular the luxury SUV to try and pull in more money to help them with their very laudable core goal of electrifying large vehicles. The problem with VIA, even worse than Azure, is that it's the wrong way round. VIA takes a vehicle, turns it into a glider, builds a drivetrain and assembles the vehicle. Contrast that with the Toysla RAV4 EVs where Tesla builds the drivetrain, ships it to Toyota who adds it into their glider. The Toysla model benefits both by lowering marginal costs and the unit's share of fixed costs. The RAV4 EV may be a compliance vehicle, but it's one manufactured the way any other vehicle is manufactured and I give Toyota credit for taking it seriously.

 

It's fairly easy to use Fuelly for both electricity and gasoline. You just have to enter both fuels rather than just gasoline.

You can look at mine for an example, or at PriusKitty's .

www.fuelly.com/driver/jhatchett/volt

www.fuelly.com/driver/priuscat/prius-plugin-3

electricity is just so inexpensive that people just don't seem to care about how much they use compared to gasoline.

fuelly just isn't very good for MPG, since the site treats any entries greater than 200mpg as typos. something just about every Volt driver has experienced and a few PiP drivers.

 

Maybe Tesla will be do a drive train for a Tundra and Sequoia.

Btw, the RAV4 EV had to have extensive re-engineering done on the glider, but it was not wasted on a compliance vehicle as the lessons learned are going into a 50 state RAV4EV, with another Tesla drive train.

 

Then basically, we could report anything we wanted without any accountability. How would you know how often the vehicle was plugged in?

The same could be said about gasoline too... if you're only filling the tank a few times per year.

 

Yeah. And remember, replacing inefficient vehicles (e.g., big SUVs) with X% more efficient vehicles saves more gas than replacing efficient vehicles (e.g., Corollas) with X% more efficient vehicles, given the same number of vehicles and miles driven.

 

It sure got people talking after Bob stirred it up.

 

Bob seems to think the fleet buyers is the audience for this conversion.

 

Isn't it annoying to see these "automotive journalists" review cars that runs on two fuels and do NOT report back two separate fuel efficiency? They only report how many gallons it used to drive all the miles. What about electricity kWh?

It really is not a hard concept.

 

GM is not working on this! Bob Lutz is using his connections to create a start up that produces phev trucks. The only thing GM has to do with this, is they are selling the start up shells, engines and parts.

 

Looks like something Hummer drivers might look into.

 

It's going to be a challenge, as fuel prices continue upward, to find affordable vehicles that are at the same time fuel-efficient enough and possess enough utility so that large numbers of people will buy them. Current vehicles aren't doing it, and Americans only buy them in large numbers because our generally pitiful public transportation leaves us with little choice. In Europe car sales are in the tank because people have alternatives, and they use them.

 

A good PHEV truck could greatly reduce oil use in one of the least efficient segments of light vehicles. I hope that the Toyota/Ford partnership or GM are able to give us one in the next 5 or so years. This thing that Lutz is promoting isn't likely to sell.

In Europe car sales are in the tank because of the financial crisis, which comes with 10.7% unemployment in EU-27. Different safety and pollution standards allows a few efficient models that we don't get in the US, but I don't think that is the main driver. Lower standards do make some of these vehicles less expensive though. IMHO European safety standards do not hurt safety, and US ones should be looked at to see if some of the extra ones actually make us any safer.

This year oil prices are expected to be slightly lower than last year, along with a recovering economy vmt should increase. We can hope that people will buy more efficient cars to reduce longer term price increases. Lack of good public transport, along with long commutes does greatly increase vmt versus Europe.

 

no one "needs" a Prius either. I am sure you can get by with a bicycle and a pair of sandals. Both a Prius and an Escalade are luxury items for consumers.

 

I'm not the one that misused the word "need".

 

I think I qualified "need" fairly well. but if you have a need to troll I can't stop you.