Recent Comments:
Officially Official: EPA rates 2009 Jetta TDI at 30/41mpg {Autoblog Green}
Jul 6th 2008 10:11AM Canada MPG numbers use Imperial Gallons, not US Gallons, that accounts for most of the difference right there.
Is the Volt nothing more than bailout bait? {Autoblog Green}
Jul 4th 2008 7:51PM @T2:
Why go battery-less? Just go for a small battery/ultra-cap, to even out the load on the engine and actually capture regen energy.
Get rid of 90% of the battery and thus 90% of the weight/cost ( Say 1.6KW $1600, instead of 16KW $16000) also drop the plug in gear.
Saving $16000 in battery cost and 350lbs of weight is nothing to sneeze at .
Keeping a small cost battery gives the drivetrain a lot of flexability and extra efficiency. You still get some limited EV only like the current Prius. Knocking out that major cost battery also lets it compete with the Prius on price.
This would be the only Volt I would be interested in.
Jetta TDI demos turn up at dealers, lots of orders coming in {Autoblog Green}
Jul 3rd 2008 8:44PM Yes and even the guys VW paid to do another test still got no where near VWs outrageous claims from a few months back.
Is the Volt nothing more than bailout bait? {Autoblog Green}
Jul 3rd 2008 8:15PM Agree the 15mpg figure is nuts. Unless GM really screwed the pooch they should get close to current Prius numbers. 40 MPG in charge sustaining mode is not an unreasonable expectation.
Veteran journalist John McElroy calls for EV1 revival; too bad it's not that simple {Autoblog Green}
Jul 3rd 2008 6:18PM Lead acids suck for EV use. Don't get seduced by low prices. The EV1 used 26 VRLA 12volt Deep cycle batteries. These are not cheap. Try quadrupling that $1200 guess. Then you still only get a few hundred cycles. EV-1 Cells were failing very early and the packs where usually toast completely by 20 000miles.
Go read some conversion stories. Lead Acids are total garbage for BEVs. You end up paying as much as higher tech batteries you just pay it in smaller chunks with much more frequent replacements. None of which compete even with expensive gas in cost/mile.
Leads acids were never viable for BEVs and they still aren't.
About the only thing to salvage from the EV1 is the aero shape wish I wish they would of done so, instead of going for a Tonka toy like they did.
Other than that EV1 offered nothing special to bring forward.
Is the Volt nothing more than bailout bait? {Autoblog Green}
Jul 3rd 2008 1:30PM Volt is currently vapor and the Charge Sustaining(CS) MPG is unknown, but I would bet on the third generation Toyota Prius beating it at CS-MPG while being $10 000 to $20 000 less expensive.
A range extended electric like GM is planning to build is a good choice if you are building a car primarily for electric only operation but as a hybrid, a blended hybrid like Toyota builds has more advantages; primarily that the electric motors and ICE can be less powerful as you can use them both together to provide motive power.
With the serial hybrid you need a full power electric to drive the car and you need a full power ICE to drive the generator to provide that power when you exceed battery range, unless you want it to turn into a slug in this condition.
It will be interesting to see how GMs 1.0 Range extender will be engineered. Will the ICE/Generator be powerful enough to give decent performance once the battery range is exceeded? Will they run the ICE at a constant (higher) RPM for greater efficiency? Will it be annoying as hell? Will you pay $40 000 to beta test GMs rushed to market paradigm shifter?
Long Beach study shows gas/hybrid buses get lower mileage than diesel {Autoblog Green}
Jul 3rd 2008 1:04PM Considering the price/energy content of diesel it is probably a wash on the carbon/cost front.
But as someone who cycled to work behind diesel buses, the lower emissions are priceless. The black clouds of death pouring out of a diesel bus are just plain evil.
More gas hybrids please.
VIDEO: Chevy Traverse takes on Toyota Highlander inside and out {Autoblog}
Jul 2nd 2008 4:51PM USA only video server? I get nothing here. How about just using something universal.
Jetta TDI demos turn up at dealers, lots of orders coming in {Autoblog Green}
Jul 2nd 2008 11:02AM The Jetta TDI wagon is a good replacement for an SUV.
But as a general runabout/commuter car, I don't see it as competition for a small hatchback like a Honda Fit which is what $10000 cheaper, burns cheaper fuel and gets quite decent mileage.
VW plans first electric car by 2010, now testing Golf Twin Drive {Autoblog Green}
Jun 26th 2008 4:10PM It would be incredibly lame to to not take advantage of the Electric and ICE combo for more instantaneous power.
I can't imagine anyone would bother building a hybrid that allowed either electric or ICE drive, but not combined. It would be a complete waste.
