Prius details and specs questions

On number 7. You can jump another vehicle, but you must keep in mind the 12 Volt battery is small., however, it is NOT a wise idea, because you can do MUCH expensive Hybrid Battery damage if not absolutely carefull!!!

David (aka Blind Guy)

 

smart key only.

small led shining on gear shift (I think on all models).

 

Although, I have a feeling you won't be saving any money by plugging it in. Electricity will be more expensive than gas. Real soon.

 

Yes and yes.

The Aptera 2e has been in development for a few years, and should begin seeing sales this October (California only, until they setup a service network in other regions). The 2e is a full electric vehicle (no hybrid) with a 120 mile range. They also working on an ultra-efficient hybrid which comes out after the 2e. The car has the lowest drag coefficient of any car ever, has a composite body which is extremely lightweight but incredibly strong, is fully crash rated as an automobile (though is classified as a motorcycle due to its three-wheeled design), is very stable (very low CG and wide wheel stance), and yes, it does have an air conditioner. On top of all that, it is a unique, cool looking car.

The solar panels are for powering a fan which keeps the inside cool when parked.

Check out:

• Aptera's corporate website (aptera.com)
• Jay Leno's Garage video blog with Jay test driving the 2e (jaylenosgarage.com/video/video_player.shtml?vid=1104622)
• Google "Aptera" and see several hundred thousands of pages.

Aptera Motors was founded a few years ago by Steve Fambro for the express purpose of creating this vehicle.

 

How do you measure that?

And, gasoline is going to be more expensive than gasoline, real soon.

Even if electricity (from the power company) goes up double (doubtful in th near-term; local power companies may get 25% increase, but not 2x), then electricity is still cheaper per mile than gas. But we've already seen that gasoline can (and will) go much higher, and we have every reason to believe it will go higher still. Sure, higher gas prices drives additional oil exploration, but remember, thus far you can only find oil, not make it.

But which electricity, there is a huge potential for making more. And as with rising oil prices comes additional exploration, so too does rising electricity prices drive additional production, and much of it from new methods which don't run out (wind, solar).

With huge countries like China and India vying for oil at ever increasing rates, the world desire for oil is going up dramatically. Even if we were able to maintain current production levels of oil for the foreseeable future (in actuality, they are going down), the price is going to go up with the rising demand. Way up. The only thing which will bring gasoline prices down is lowering demand; don't hold out for rising supply.

If your comment was meant to say "We'll be spending more per month on electricity than gasoline," well, maybe that is true. Sure, you do a lot with electricity because it is so versatile. Try running your house/life on gasoline. If you lit your house, cooled/heated your rooms, cooked your food, and powered your appliances with gasoline (assuming you could), you would find it would be WAY more expensive. You currently use electricity for all those things because is is so much *less* expensive. We are just using it in so many ways for just that very reason. If you add to the mix the task of charging your car, but remove the cost of purchasing a like-amount of gasoline, you would be saving a considerable amount of money.

 

Signal mirrors depend on your location. Yes, on European, Australian and Japanese models. No, not on North American models. There may be a regulatory reason behind this. Lighting regs differ between countries who have signed up to the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicles Regulations (a working party of the UN Economic Commission for Europe, ECE), and the US FMVSS/Canadian CMVSS.

The fuel tank is 45 litres, or 11.8 US gallons. I don't think it's designed for more than 10% ethanol.

B is low gear, for holding back the car more on descents without using the brakes. The exact way this is done depends on battery state of charge and other factors, but it generally uses at least some engine braking. Use it if you're on a steep downgrade, the rest of the time, leave the car in D.

You're thinking about the battery the wrong way. It predominantly charges just from engine rotation in normal use. The car targets a battery level of around 80% of full charge, and it will recharge the battery in preference to using less fuel. Think of the battery like a bank overdraft; if you borrow some charge you have to pay it back with interest. The battery is there to contribute dynamic driving performance, to assist with hill climbing, and to run the car at low speed and torque where the engine cannot run.

You get some charge from regen braking but it's not actually that much; it's better to glide down to a target speed, or to a stop, if you can. Anticipate the need to brake and slow down a little, early, and often the need to stop is gone by the time you get there.

It does have a 12V auxiliary battery, which is there to boot the computers. If the car is READY, the 12V system is run from the high-voltage system, via a DC/DC converter which converts 200V to 12V. The aux battery recharges from this. However, in Accessories and Ignition-On modes, the accessories and computers run from the 12V battery. It's not very big, so extended running in these modes, particularly the high-draw IG-ON mode, drains the battery pretty quickly. Lead-acid car batteries can't tolerate many full-drain cycles.

You can charge another car's battery from the Prius but you should not start the other car with the cars connected. Doing so risks damaging the inverter, a very expensive part. The MSRP for the 2G part is $3,636.75. Good samaritans in Prius get punished. If you must do it, make sure you have the other driver's keys so they can't start their car.

The smog/emissions test depends on your location. Some jurisdictions just check that the on-board diagnostics aren't reporting excessive emissions. Others still do a tailpipe test - there is a diagnostic mode to force the engine to run. The UK currently does not test emissions for hybrids: special notice 02-2009 gives the changes to the MOT inspection manual; annex C section 7.3 "explains that exhaust emission testing does not apply to quadricycles or electric/combustion engine (Hybrid) vehicles." Check your state's rules.

 

Supply is up; demand is down. Crude oil prices are rising because the futures market is structured in a way that doesn't require actual delivery of the oil, freeing price speculators to play to their wallet's content. Investment banks have been pushing commodities futures as a hedge against inflation. They offer products that promise a return based on an index of commodities, in exchange for regular payments, and they 'earn' the money to pay out on those investments by buying the commodity futures. The strategy of buying futures and never selling pushes the price of the paper up, because the supply of the paper contracts is limited.

The real oil market is affected because the futures market is considered to perform a price discovery function, so real oil contracts are priced in terms of the futures price. However, the amount of real oil produced and consumed is vastly greater than the amount of paper traded.

The US House Agriculture Committee wrote a bill to put serious caps on speculation in commodity futures, because farmers were seriously screwed by last year's futures bubble (wheat, corn, pork bellies; all these commodities are in the indexes and all followed the same trend as crude oil). However, it hasn't got back onto the House floor - it seems to be stuck in the Financial Services Committee.

There are actually supposed to be caps already - the Commodities Futures Trading Commission exists to prevent speculation in these markets. It has refused to do its job.

I strongly recommend that you read The Accidental Hunt Brothers.

Electricity prices are based largely on the input prices, at least since the Enron price-manipulation market was shut down. More power is coming from natural gas than before, though, and Henry Hub natural gas is in the indexes. UK natural gas, thankfully, isn't, and has been falling steadily this year. So has UK Power. I do expect it to go back up in winter, but this seasonal variation is normal, and is demand-driven.

 

Not sure who first developed it, but I had the roof solar panel / exhaust fan option on a 2003 Mercedes, so I don't consider it to be exactly innovative.

 

Well here's my train of thought.

They have already toyed with the idea that since people are driving more fuel efficent cars (generally speaking - not always the case - I understand) and they are receiving less tax dollars from the sale of gasoline, then maybe we should tax people on how many miles they drive.

If electricity prices continue to climb, which they absolutely will if Cap and Trade passes, and we move over to electric cars, then I'm afraid we'll be even more screwed than we already are. I cannot afford my electric bill right now as it is, much less seeing an increase. I keep my thermostat at 76 in the summer and cool in the winter.

I by no means am in love with the idea of gas cars, either. But I do think that we need to develop other alternative fuels such as solar. I don't want to "put all my eggs in one basket" as far as having to rely on Dominion Power to truly fuel my whole life. Sounds like a Monopoly in the making.

I am not looking to pick a fight, simply stating my opinion. I realize that I may be in the minority here, but I'm OK with that. We are after all on the same planet and only time will tell what will become of this Country and the World.

Until then, I am anxiously awaiting my Prius so that I may give less of my money away and try and save it for a rainy day.