Not as upbeat as usual, but...
I would like to apologize in advance for this post. I just have to get this off my chest.
There is something about Hybrid cars that makes me a little more cynical than usual. Maybe it is the fact that car companies are toting them as being fuel efficient – like 24/32 is some miraculous breakthrough in automotive engineering. Never mind the fact that my 1982 Subaru and my 1980 VW Scirocco both got better than that in mileage. Oh, sure, the new cars are safer, and those safety features cause the car to weigh more. Can a five hundred pound weight gain in safety features really account for no major improvement in fuel economy? I guess I just can’t understand why people are getting all excited about something that puts us right where were we were, mileage-wise, twenty five years ago. Maybe I am the only person who finds this marketing strategy a little offensive, and downright disappointing. It just seems to me that for as far as we have come, we should have more to show for it.
Maybe, with all the hype around hybrids, automakers will become encouraged to design better, more fuel-efficient designs. Maybe, just maybe, they will see a reason to put as much money into alternative fuel studies as they have into resurrecting old muscle cars. Maybe. In the mean time, I will retain my resentment towards to Hybrid car movement, and continue walking my current path towards a greener future.
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--Hybrids kind of strike me like transitional species in paleontology. The logic behind the reasons that transitional species, (as sort of "intermediate" animals like proto-amphibians, for instance,) aren't around today goes something like this:
First there are fish. They are successful and fill the ocean niche'. Then, adaptation leads to "fish-frogs," which are successful at the ocean boundaries. Then, further adaptation leads to frogs, which are successful on land and fill the land niche' near the oceans. Well, the bad news for our early "fish-frogs" is that plain ol' fish compete better in the oceans, and the new frogs compete better on land. Hasta la vista "frog-fish." Now, we're left with just fish and frogs.
-So, in my view, hybrid cars, (like "frog-fish,") are kinda' the worst of both worlds but also a necessary step toward more evolved and ultimately more efficient future versions.
Just my two cents.
Now THIS is the kind of news I like to hear. I have long been a huge fan of diesel technologies. A friend of mine, who frequents the following site, sent me this link. It sounds like it has a lot of potential!
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=204636
http://greenopolis.com/node/18715
That's exactly why they stopped making the Hybrid Accord. It didn't sell much and got bad gas millage for a hybrid. For larger vehicles it's a tough call though, it's debatable if diesel is a tiny bit better, but hydrogen and fuel cells are better so you'd think that's where the technology needs to go.