I'm Glad and It's ABOUT TIME...

Maybe we will have a ZPE power plant in 7 years.

 

100mpg hybrid - you mean like this?

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/ecotech/es3.htm 8)

 

VW just made a 2-seater commuter like the Insight but the passenger sits behind the driver. It got 238 mpg. A prototype was even built and tested in Europe. Not sure if they are going to mass produce it.

 

We will make a transition to plug-in vehicles in efforts to improve air quality, increase efficiency and decrease costs. There will be minimal impact to the present grid with its centralized power plants. Instead photovoltaic panels tied to smart sine-wave inverters will appear on the roof of every school, home, apartment, church, business and car port.

With prudent driving and "running green lights" I easily obtain 61 mpg every day. Using sun-derived electrons and improved batteries, we will drive 200 to 400 miles on a "tank" of electrons (as evidenced by work currently under way at the University of California at Davis and other places).

The era of "substituting oil for knowledge" is over and we now make the transition to applying knowledge first.

 

Timing wasn't fortuitous, but how many of you remember the post-WWII luxury/economy 2-seater, 3-wheeler? Was it Mitsubishi or Messerschmidt? I admired its styling and the streamlined bubble canopy; but my pocketbook allowed only the Italians' Vespa + my naval aviator's leather helmet and jacket for my commute between West San Fernando Valley and U.C.L.A. in the 50's. I wondered how comfortably it would ride.

 

What it all boils down to

i believe, unfortunate though it may be, that monetary and economic desires will limit the ability for we as a society to develop extremely efficient vehicles. Because of our current dependency on oil, and the close ties that the United States holds with some of the major oil producing countries, it would be more profitable to limit the amount of mgp a car can get. Since many politicians have stakes in the oil claim, it is likely that our lawmakers will opt for the more temporal route of financial intelligence rather than technological development.

 

It was German, definitely a Messerschmidt.

[Broken External Image]:http://www.klassisk-bil.dk/Dette_nummer/images/aug_02/messerschmidt.jpg

UCLA, Fight, Fight, Fight!!!

 

According to some guy I heard on Art Bell last week, a 200 mpg car has already been invented but the inventor was killed by the Trilateral Commision, his patent was bought and buried by Ford, and his body was stolen from his grave and transported to the shadow Earth planet Gramunglia by space aliens and/or Masons.

 

Great photo, thanks! I thought, at first, that you had submitted a shot of your personal classic. I haven't seen one of these under way in the last 40 years, at least. I wonder if any still exist, stateside. They claimed great mileage and did just fine on L.A. freeways. Too bad they disappeared.

 

Google Image search to the rescue.

I have not seen one since the fifties and early sixties when I was growing up in Israel. They were fairly common there during the early post independence austerity years.

 

Ack! Someone edited my post!

 

I say no because there is no financial incentive to do so as a matter of fact I would think that behind the scenes some politicians and big oil hope we don't. I think until governments require that kind of mileage it will not happen on a real level (not considering the rare one off type vehicles that are produced). Look at all the pollution laws here in the US and how long it takes for the transition to cleaner factories (and all of the appeals for delays the are granted).

Hydrogen is another example of lack of incentive to change our ways.

 

The oil cartel and the "big 3" auto manufacturers will fight tooth and nail to keep a 100mpg vehicle from showing up...they will fight and threaten anyone who comes up with it, just like years ago they made the 80mpg carb disappear...

 

Seven years isn't quite long enough in the grand scheme of things. I'm not saying it's impossible provided that the market incentives were there including gasoline well over $5 per gallon, I just think the time line is too short.

 

That will teach you to listen to late night talk radio!