Green Fuel
Students unveil “Trinity,” a 200 mpg SUV at NewFangledGreen
If students can make a plug-in hybrid out of an SUV that already exists, why can’t GM, Ford, and others? Plug-in hybrids make so much sense, I can’t understand why the big auto makers aren’t making them!
I’ve been wondering something similar for a while. If we have all of these technical universities coming up with hybrid engines for years, why aren’t they in full production?
If one oil company said, “We’re going to start migration of our stations to hydrogen (or ethanol) and will be complete by 2010.” I wonder how quick the automobile companies would follow-up with engine development? Imagine if one oil company did that. They would be media darlings about being innovative plus they would have a head start for when we’re really in the pits about a lack of oil production.
We only need gasoline currently, because no one has taken a step forward and said, “hey we know you’re suffering with the high costs of gasoline and we’re going to change that”. Instead, we have everyone from the oil companies to the auto companies and the government, making tiny baby steps….when we should have been doing something for the past 30 years.
June 13th, 2006 at 10:01 am
From what I understand, it sounds like car companies are reluctant to allow their cars to be used in full electric mode. For example, the Prius is capable of running in electric-only mode, but that feature is disabled in the US version (see http://www.autoblog.com/2006/06/01/toyota-s-prius-in-europe-gets-a-button-we-don-t/).
Supposedly, the reason is that, in the US, manufaturers must warrant a hybrid drivetrain (including the batteries) for at least 8 years. Using the car in hybrid mode theoretically reduces wear on the batteries, so that they will have a better chance of making it through the warraty period.