hybrid mileage comes up short

[Camelyn]

Speaking of batteries and fuel cells...(we were, weren't we? )

The Japanese approach to fuel cell technology has been hybridization, but with batteries. In addition to the fuel cell, they incorporate a secondary power source to help with acceleration and hill climbing. Fuel cell respond best under a steady acceleration or cruising, so when you need the extra boost, the battery will kick in to provide the needed power to maintain responsiveness.

Japan already has two hydrogen fueling stations up and running, last I read, with more in the works.

As for obstacles to the hydrogen fuel cell market in North America, besides refueling, there is also the issue of range and safety. Range will be an issue in North America, where distances are big, and even a weekend get-away can mean a couple hundred miles in either direction. And a couple hundred miles is about the maximum range before refueling that a fuel cell will go.

The safety issue may be mostly a matter of perception, as most fuel cells would probably withstand being dropped off a plane and survive unexploded, but the general public may take some convincing.

 

[Mirlyn]

The safety issue may be mostly a matter of perception, as most fuel cells would probably withstand being dropped off a plane and survive unexploded, but the general public may take some convincing.

I saw an article or two a couple weeks ago on how emergency personnel are going through training to deal with severe accidents involving hybrid cars...primarily the danger when extracting a victim is the high-voltage lines running through the car. In some cases, just disconnecting the batteries isn't enough to discharge the system.

http://news.google.com/news?q=emergency hybrid cars training&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&sa=N&tab=wn

 

[pc_builder]

i heard on the radio about honda's hybrid. although, i've also heard that toyota's hybrid is delivering on the mileage. I could be wrong.

everyone i talk to keeps complaining about how the toyota hybrid looks.
they say, "i'd buy one if they'd make it look better." I don't care how it looks if it's saving me money on gas.

 

[pc_builder]

in fact, i just visited Toyota's website and looked at the Prius. I think it looks just fine, so what are people complaining about?

 

[Professur]

Well, I think they're complaining about hauling about 12 car batteries and getting dick all back in fuel savings. If they dropped the batteries, the car'd probably get even better miilage.

 

[Inkara1]

A lady at work has a Civic Hybrid, so I asked her about it. She said she gets in the mid-40s with hers, and she lives on a country road that has a lot of curves and requires a lot of accelerating out of said curves. She told me that the guy's probably not driving it the right way, because it does require a bit of an adjustment from how he was probably used to driving. She also said her car took some time to break in and it's been getting better mileage lately.