One can also get some of the benefits with less "tiny car" trade-off. We
have a Lexus hybrid (same technology as the Prius, scaled up) and it gets
about a 10 mpg boost over the identical model in its gas-only version.
As for the fuel cell vehicles, I'm failing to see their advantage at
present, as from what I can determine the cost of production of hydrogen is
higher in terms of fossil fuels than is using those liquefied dinosaurs
directly.
Nonetheless, the "greenest" option, usually, is keeping one's vehicle for
the longest possible time, thus avoiding both the environmental costs of
production of yet another new vehicle, and of the destruction/disposal of
the old one. By that metric, my 26 year old Land Cruiser might be the
greenest vehicle I have yet owned.
On Thu, Jul 30, 2015 at 10:55 PM ChrisB <ftog@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Ken
>
> It reads from that post that you aren’t comparing like with like. But if
> you take your Prius as being only a little heavier because of its
> batteries, you might argue that it would sit lower and cause less drag, but
> that still doesn’t allow a heavier vehicle, driven in similar fashion, to
> use less energy than a lighter one that is similar in every other way.
>
> Again, I accept that the Prius might be a good compromise, but it would
> doubtless be more economical if it could use a lighter battery pack of the
> same output.
>
> And it looks better than the Mirai, although neither is a picture :-)
>
> Chris
>
> > On 30 Jul 15, at 19:57, Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> >> Although I’m prepared to accept that the Prius is a good compromise (and
> >> your previous posts have tempted me to look for a used model), your
> >> assertion sounds like a recipe for perpetual motion. A heavier vehicle
> >> driven in the same fashion as a lighter one will always use more energy.
> >
> > No, not at all. I'm not talking about perpetual motion. However, when
> > you factor in a direct apples-to-apples weight comparison, the
> > hybrids, like the Prius, are only about a net 100 pounds heavier.
>
> --
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