Experimental Hybrid Car - up to 250 mpg

[Connoisseur]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing

Originally posted by: Connoisseur

Originally posted by: EyeMWing

Mass transit systems that are completely and totally broken? It's cheaper and damn near as fast to drive (sanely) than the mass transit systems, even in Europe. And if you drive like your pants are on fire, it's faster, too.

That's why I mentioned that the government should invest more money upgrading and building new infrastructure. I'm not claiming that this system is perfect, but with technologies like Maglev and other high speed train services, it would def be faster than a car commute into the city and much cleaner than having thousands of people drive in with their SUV's or sedans. As for reliability, I'm not aware of any of the newer technologies having terrible maintenance issues.

And I don't drive if my pants are on fire. I take them off first then go driving in my underwear... mmm.

A train may well be faster than a car for a commute into the city - but people don't live within a 1-mile corridor that they could easily plop a train line down the middle of, do they? And then all work within the same radius of one particular spot where they could build a train station. Trains are GREAT if you have a TON of people going from one place to another (i.e. between cities), but NOT for short range commutes.

Dude. They have that now. It's called Penn Station. Doesn't work half that bad for something built like crap. It shuttles people from everywhere in Jersey to NY every day. We're talking from suburbia to the city. I say with a little better planning and some high speed trains, we could use the existing infrastrucure to build a much more efficient rail system than the one we have now. I have a 1 1/2 hour commute to work everyday from Jersey to NYC. I can easily see that commute cut down by a half if we reduce delays and increase train speeds.

 

[archcommus]

I've always wondered why we can't have cars that are purely driven by electricity, is it just because that wouldn't be helping much? And the money you'd save by not buying gas would just switch right over to your electricity bill?

 

[Connoisseur]

Originally posted by: archcommus
I've always wondered why we can't have cars that are purely driven by electricity, is it just because that wouldn't be helping much? And the money you'd save by not buying gas would just switch right over to your electricity bill?

Lots of reasons. Batteries are expensive to make and heavy... and producing them creates pollution and hazardous waste products. There is no infrastructure for battery charging (like gas stations). Petroleum companies have much money and they can influence policy on what types of vehicles are created (they're keepin the electricity down!). Production battery powered vehicles don't yet have the performance numbers of gas powered vehicles. Maybe they never will.

 

[LeiZaK]

Originally posted by: b0mbrman

Originally posted by: cyberhap
Text

CORTE MADERA, Calif. - Politicians and automakers say a car that can both reduce greenhouse gases and free America from its reliance on foreign oil is years or even decades away. Ron Gremban says such a car is parked in his garage.

It looks like a typical Toyota Prius hybrid, but in the trunk sits an 80-miles-per-gallon secret ? a stack of 18 brick-sized batteries that boosts the car's high mileage with an extra electrical charge so it can burn even less fuel.

Gremban, an electrical engineer and committed environmentalist, spent several months and $3,000 tinkering with his car.


Pretty sweet stuff.

Yeah right :roll:

You're lucky that stack of 18 brick-sized batteries didn't blow the welds on the intake! Now me and the mad scientist gotta rip apart the block, and replace the piston rings you fried.

 

[HumblePie]

Originally posted by: Connoisseur

Originally posted by: archcommus
I've always wondered why we can't have cars that are purely driven by electricity, is it just because that wouldn't be helping much? And the money you'd save by not buying gas would just switch right over to your electricity bill?

Lots of reasons. Batteries are expensive to make and heavy... and producing them creates pollution and hazardous waste products. There is no infrastructure for battery charging (like gas stations). Petroleum companies have much money and they can influence policy on what types of vehicles are created (they're keepin the electricity down!). Production battery powered vehicles don't yet have the performance numbers of gas powered vehicles. Maybe they never will.

Partly right, partly wrong. There are quite a few electrical vehicles out that can out perform just about any gas car. They ARE expensive though. I think the Arial, which looks like a postcard on wheels, is like $85K for a small two seater car that can do 0-60 in less then 4 seconds. Great performance electrical car. Expensive because of lack of demand and lack of mass production.

I was watching Cool Gear on techtv, back when it was Techtv and not bought out by G4. Anyhow, they had a guy that built his OWN electrical car from scratch and used 40,000 lithium ion laptop batteries to do it. He said it was completely silent running, it looked and handled like a porche, did 0-60 in about 4 seconds, ran around 8 hours on a full charge, took about 3 hours to charge from empty to max, and could do around 700 miles per charge.

But, do you know how much 40,000 laptop batteries cost? Say and average of $200 each.... yah, not something for the average joe blow.

 

[Dufusyte]

http://www.switch2hydrogen.com/

"The United Nuclear Hydrogen Fuel System Kit converts your existing vehicle to run on Hydrogen.

Complete kits will soon be available for various late-model cars & trucks as well as individual system components for those who choose to assemble their own kits.

Included in the kits (and also available separately) is our solar powered Hydrogen Generator that manufactures the Hydrogen fuel for your vehicle at virtually zero cost.

Simply put, you never have to buy Gasoline again.

Since there are no major changes made to your engine, you can still run your vehicle on Gasoline at any time.

We now have over 50,000 trouble-free miles on our prototype vehicles. We are currently fleet-testing our systems and are in final preparation for sales to the general public."

from:
http://www.switch2hydrogen.com/