[Quietcars] Hello again.

[Robert Wilson]

Hi Michael,

Congratulations on your move although my experience with DC traffic has been good news and bad news. Individually, I've been impressed with the skills of most DC drivers. However, DC has these vehicles with diplomatic plates and they are true road hazards.

. . .

> Any new projects, thoughts, decisions>?  

It looks like I'll be attending "Industry Day" at the Detroit Auto Show, January 14. I'll probably do a trip report for the hybrid community and post a URL to the report once I get back home.

I plan to see how far Fischer-Lotus went in their claims from the June 23 hearing. The latest rumors are Fischer-Lotus will only offer a two-seater, sports car version. One wonders if Lotus will begin advertising their Prius solution to include the new crop of hybrids.

There are rumors of 2010 being the 'year of the hybrid' in terms of production releases. Toyota and Ford have been sharing teasers of some very interesting hybrid technology, 4th generation stuff. Other manufactures continue to hold up either auto-stop, hybrids that stop their engines when halted at a light. Worse are the concept cars that are little more than hand-built, PowerPoint engineering. This wasted effort only makes sense as a marketing ploy trying to deferred a real hybrid purchase. 

During 'round two' of the bailout begging in Washington, the CEOs got a clue and car pooled in their hybrid vehicles. However, there is some question about how 'real' these hybrids really are. This is what the New York Times wrote:

". . .
Robert Nardelli of Chrysler drove his company’s Aspen Hybrid S.U.V.,
which gets 22 miles a gallon on the highway and 20 in the city. Alan
Mulally of Ford drove an Escape Hybrid S.U.V. — 31 m.p.g. on the
highway and 34 in the city. And Rick Wagoner of General Motors drove a
Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid Sedan. His was the most efficient on the
highway, averaging 34 m.p.g., but only 26 in the city.
What’s wrong with this picture? For starters, although these
vehicles may be hybrids, by any real-world standard they are not
particularly fuel-efficient. Hybrid technology can only do so much to
improve the gas mileage of a huge, heavy, overpowered car.

A reality check for those who would like to compare: The Toyota
Prius — a hybrid — averages 48 m.p.g. in the city and 45 on the
highway. . . ." by Elisabeth Rosenthal, "Detroit's Second Trip to Washington Not Very Efficient", Dec. 8, 2008.

As a technical note, a true hybrid has better city mileage than highway. The mock hybrids use engine "auto-stop" and claim that makes them a hybrid but this is not enough to save significant fuel in the city. The reason for better city mileage in a true hybrid is due to the aerodynamic drag that increases by the square of the velocity. The mock hybrids lose too much energy accelerating and braking in the city compared to a true hybrid. Only the Ford, Toyota and Nissan hybrids have true hybrid characteristic. The GM and Chyrsler faux-hybrids are of little interest to informed hybrid owners.

> I know for sure that the auto
> industry is in turmoil, and what happens next is primarily up to congress
> and the president.  How will this effect legislation pertaining to quieter
> cars?  

The current legislation, HR 5734, dies with this Congress. Furthermore, the previous political appointment leading the NHTSA left in September and there is an acting NHTSA administrator. I haven't heard a clear name from the Obama team for the DoT head much less the NHTSA so we'll see. 

Given the severe Federal budget problems, I suspect new programs may have funding challenges at least until some progress is made on getting the recession turned around.

Chat at you later,
Bob Wilson

ps. The latest hybrid skeptic report comes from Top Gear, a BBC auto show. They put a Formula-1 race car driver into a Prius and drove it around a flat, track they use for their show and followed it in a BMW luxury sedan. The Prius only got 17 MPG while the sedate BMW following got 19 MPG.

The trick is a Formula-1 driver has only three speed settings: (1) maximum acceleration and (2) maximum brake, and (3) tires at the limit of traction, often going sideways. This style of driving often leads passengers to getting motion sick but Top Gear has a fondness for such driving. Of course the Top Gear host tried to imply something from this staged test. It is Top Gear #33 if you can retrieve it from Comcast 'on demand.'










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