High speed Prius notes

Yep there's a whole lot of KE in a 1500kg car travelling at 160 MPH, any accident is going to be a hell of a mess.

Also having vehicles at 100MPG ans 160MPG on the same piece of road is very scary to me. The amount of energy you have to shed to get from 160MPH down to 100MPH is approx the same as the energy to go from 125MPH down to zero (due to KE square law).

I'm also happy to leave this to the Germans.

 

That is very consistent with my experience. Somewhere around 65-70 your mpg drops significantly (i.e going 75 versus 70 cuts your mpg by 10!)

Kirk

 

Funnily enough, in the UK at least (and as far as I'm aware the same holds true for Germany) accidents and their consequences on motorways only comprise 3% of all accidents and fatalities/serious injuries. This is because everyone is going in the same direction, and relative speed differences are small. Even in Germany, you may have a relative speed difference of 60moh, with both vehicles travelling in the same direction, with crash barriers or (in the UK at least, I can't recall if they have them in Germany) Brifen safety barriers. This is opposed to 2 vehicles meeting head on with a possible combined speed of 120mph on a rural road. I know which crash I'd rather be in.

I'm happy to be proved wrong as I'm unfamiliar with KE square law!