2010 Prius information & pictures from Car & Driver

And what about the other 50%?

 

Wow, it does. I used to have a Merkur XR4Ti.

 

Hydropower only represents 18% of NY state's electricity consumption. Nuclear is dominant in NY, at 29%. NY also generates nearly as much electricty from coal plants (16%) as they do from hydropower.

Those wind farms you talk about are ridiculously inefficient, and produce less than 1% of NY's electricity.

Facts are facts. Electricity is not clean. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool or has a hidden agenda.

 

My reply was to your comment:
"And how do you think your electricity is created? Unless you have a full solar power system at your place of "plugging in", you are still polluting."

That is not 100% correct because hydropower generated electricity and wind farms do not pollute. You can also have a discussion with John McCain who believes nuclear generated electricity is clean.

BTW-Quebec hydropower claims they have 4x excess capacity they can generate during peak hours. That's a lot of clean non polluting electricity.

 

It can be done (at least the auto vent fan thing); our '00 Audi A6 has a solar panel in the sunroof that powers the fan to keep the car from getting too hot. You can retract the roof like other sunroofs but you can't slide the liner back to look through the glass.

Greg

 

Cool. How effective is your Audi's solar-powered blower at preventing heat buildup in your vehicle? Can you disable it? Can you select the temperature and/or blower speed? Ever do any experiments to determine exactly what type of difference it makes on a hot sunny day (steady-state outside and inside temperatures, blower enabled vs. blower disabled). Is it the same standard air blower, or is there an additional one for the solar application? Can you tell what "speed" it runs at?

 

You are right, there is no "clean" energy (yet?). Even hydro dams and wind turbines pollute... they generated pollution in order to be built/manufactured/installed/maintained.
For a true comparison, one would have to calculate the pollution created to build/install/maintain a hydro dam, a wind turbine and solar panels, divide that by the number of useful years.

One can however understand that the renewable energy sources (hydro, wind, solar) will end up with a much lower pollution rate/year than fossil fuel energy sources.

Even if real clean energy was available, a full EV car would still pollute because pollution would have been emitted during its manufacture. It would still require some maintenance, tire changes, etc.

There's a difference between a car that is "less worse" for the environment versus "good for the environment". No vehicle is good for the environment.

 

It is the same standard air blower and from what I've been able to tell, the "speed" is mostly dictated by the amount of sun striking the panel. I haven't investigated to find out if there is a temperature input to the speed. To my knowledge I also can't disable it, but w/ the sunroof tipped to aid airflow the seats and steering wheel are bearable on a hot, sunny summer day. The car is also much less stuffy. My best direct comparison is with our other car (white VW Passat). With the windows cracked open on the Passat, the temperature is still higher than in the dark blue Audi w/ only the sunroof tipped open and the fan on via the panel.

Greg

 

i hope you're sarcastic about the rear end

they used to be 26k in 2003 and 2004 before the touring model

 

i'm talking less about the shape of the car but rather the style of the taillights and rear windshield.

 

Sadly, most of the dams in the US are well beyond their useful years. Hopefully, as a nation, we will do the right thing and retrofit these clean-er sources of power and get them up to snuff so they last another 50-80 years.

Our infrastructure is slowly going by the wayside, and hopefully we won't pay for it in the long run.

 

I have to agree with previous posters - this thing is butt-ugly. If this is the shape of Priuses to come, I'll happily stick with my '08...

 

Did anyone notice that the rear wheels look smaller than the front on the original poster's photo? I know it could be the perspective, but it looks this way on the rear angle shot on the link too. Odd.

 

haha... that managed to throw you off.. has anyone realized how poorly the tires are drawn onto this photo? they are completely out of proportion.

that's GTA4... just a game. :lever:

 

That is such a beautiful car. Just needs 90% tinting.

I WILL by a generation III the first year they come out. When the cashier tries to sell me the extended warranty, I can't wait to tell him/her "No" because I plan on voiding the warranty ASAP and convert it into a PHEV.

I can't wait to see the look on their face, as I will drive it to Hymotion and get it done that same week!!!!!!!

Brad

 

eww... that green car sketch looks like the mutant baby of a Silver Pine Mica Prius and a Ford Focus hatchback

 

It may appear clean in terms of standard air pollution but not in terms of thermal pollution and a whole host of problems arising from water diversion, daming of spawning rivers (local and anadromous fish), flooding, erosion, unatural water flow rates, evaporation, etc. Dams are horrible devices and I don't know any ecologist that would call them a source of "clean power". Sadly they are temporary fixes since they have a short shelf life albeit more than the average power plant.

 

I think that this is quite likely. I'd estimate that the Gen3 will have...
...a telescoping SW and a manual 'pump' adjuster for the seat as standard equipment ( even the $18000 Corolla's have them )
...the SAT 'enabled' like the upscale Corolla
...7 airbags standard, VDIM standard
...standard sound system, or DJ option or EJ option

However on the upscale trim, which would bridge over to the Lexus model, I'd expect power seats, EJ standard of course, plus some goodies in the telemetrics. It is a geek-mobile afterall.

 

I doubt they would flair the fenders, it causes drag!

 

Cruise Control Memory - Re: 2010 Prius information & pictures from Car & Driver

Anyone know if there will be cruise control memory, so when you go below 25MPH, you will be able to hit Resume, after getting back above 24MPH, to go whatever speed you happened to have set, before? Any chance for a retrofit of earlier models?

While I'm at it, how about adding "double-click" up/down to set the CC speed up or down by 5MPH at a time, rather than 5 "single-clicks," as with the current programming?