GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, apparently pushing more
nonsense out of his ass.
General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said in an interview this week that GM doubts the benefits of hybrids, but must build them to improve its public image. “Hybrids are technologically of doubtful benefit, and expensive, but necessary from a political and public relations point of view,” Lutz told Just-Auto. “Toyota has said, economically, hybrids make no sense. The reduction in fuel [consumption] does not pay for the technological content and cost of the vehicle so therefore economically it remains fairly nonsensical, so that’s the left-brain analytical argument.”
While all this bluster spews forth you have to wonder why the company is chasing the Hydrogen car instead.
The reduction in fuel [consumption] does not pay for the technological content and cost of the vehicle so therefore economically it remains fairly nonsensical,…
Who put that bean-counter in charge? And where are his handlers during this inteview? 🙂
“nonsensical” if you are only doing an ROI on the increased purchase price.
I’ve been considering getting one for the same reason joshua did:
We did not buy the Prius to save overall money, it was mostly because it is an Advanced Technology Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle (AT-PZEV)…
29 Electrics, ethonal, hydrodgen, or even diseal are almost all hands down better choices then a gas hybrid, but hey don’t let logic or science come into this. Hybrids are about a political statement not a scientific choice.
Well shit, bring on these other technologies. Who is stopping you…
Hybrids weren’t supposed to be the end of the line, just a step in the right direction.
And >110k people buying them in the first 6-months of this year is a great “ploitical statement” to me. People voting with their wallets for somehting other than the status quo.
http://www.hybridcars.com/sales-numbers.html
I also like the Idea of Hydrogen,
Even tho they proved it could work 10 years ago, they wouldnt release it until they found a Propritary system to deliver it.
They dont want you to go to the weilding shop and load up, at 1/2 the price of Regular gas.
They want you to buy these funny little pellets that costs a small fortune.
Could be ECA that they don’t want a lot of hydrogen stations sitting around cities full of a very unstable gas.
when i looked into buying a civic i looked at their hybrid. i calculated that it would take me close to eleven years to save the same in gas money as the difference in the price of the car. and i commute 180km/day round trip.
there’s no way i wouold buy a hybrid vehicle unless the price were to drop by 33%.
and the sales guys said i might qualify for a $2000 rebate from the federal government (canadian). that means with my income i would probably get about $10 back.
Damn it guys. Hybryids consume less.Period. There’s no angle or stuff, they just consume less. And emit less gas and particles. Period. They are more expensive. Yes. That’s why we have tax benefits here if we buy one.
Also they are more packed with technology, that costs more, and also economy of scale come into it, since thet represent only a fraction of vehicles being built.
Since you are so keen on ROI go buy a chinese or Indian car, they cost one third of the normal…that way even if they spend twice the gas, you end up saving… duh…
You guys don’t get it….Hybridization is a feature you can add to any kind of combustion engine, be it run on gasoline, natural gas, hidrogen, methanol, ethanol, diesel, whatever. It´s just an electric motor serving as a motor and a generator. While cruising it serves as an alternator, filling the batteries, and using brake energy also to fill batteries. And sometimes, when you need a boost, tipically when recovering speed or just accelerating from stopped, it kicks in helping the combustion motor. As you probably know, combustion motors have optimal rotational speed to get the most performance out of it.
It’s not an electrical car. Pure electrical cars don’t save energy, in fact it’s the other way around, because producing, delivering and storing electrical energy is not very efficient these days.
33,
Its not unstable.
Even the Hindenberg DIDNT explode until the Oxygen/hydrogen mixed ABOVE the craft. it was the doping on the exterior that Burned holes in the bags and released the Hydrogen. It was later found that the Doping is what we use NOW as solid rocket fuel and was ignited by the lightning storm they passed threw.
there is also anther thought as to useing a different form or expansion. NOT to explod the gas, but to heat it, and then recover it BACK into the system. This could used with many forms of Liquid gas esp, propane and butane as their liquid state is in the 40f area, and it expnads alot at 60-80f.. It wouldnt be MPG anymore as you could recycle the gas, more then 1 time.