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Available, Affordable Gas/Electric Hybrid Vehicles?
An Anonymous Coward asks: "For those of us with aging vehicles, what hybrid gas/electric car models are out for 2002 and what will come out for 2003?" I have to admit, looking for vehicles such as these will be a lot easier to find than those that run on vegetable oil, but it would be nice to see more vehicles relying less on unleaded petrol or diesel.
Is an electric car for you? Maybe, maybe not.
If you do a lot of hiway driving, than a VW TDI will get better milage, and be cheaper.
If you want to screw OPEC, (a nobel cause) than many cars come with E-85 engines. 85% ethanol, 15% gasoline. A little more expensive, but not too bad, and often less than an electric equivelent. Everyone getting a new car that runs on gas should insist on this option, it doens't cost much more, and you can run on regular gas if you need to.
Bicycle. For in-town transportation of short distances an electric car comes into it's element. A bike will work just as well in most of those cases. Cheap enough that you can have it with anouther vechical. Not comfortable in bad weather, and hard to haul gear. Everyone should own and use one when they are an option. When distances are short, then the difference in time of driving vs rideing is insignificant.
Electirc car. Great for city driving. For hiway driving they end up just being heavier and thus get worse milage. Because of the weight of batteries you often can't haul a lot of gear. Excellent choice for those who only have to go a few miles.
Conversions. Do it yourself mostly, but I'm sure there are shops to do this. Ford sells rangers without engines, and I think Chevy sells the S10 the same. Take off the bed and put in a few grand worth of batteries, drop an electric moter in where the engine would be (the transmission comes with), connect the gas pedel to a controler and you are set. You can get a fairly good range, and recharge overnight (be sure to get the reduced nighttime rates from your power company). Good for commuting to work (short distances) with tools - carpenters and the like. Not enough range to drive all day, but enough for normal driving. I've considered this myself.
Airplane. Appears more expensive, but you go over the traffic jams, instead of ideling in them. You can travel 100 mph legally (depending on the plane, some top out at 45, others will go 600, 100 is a good round number that the average person could afford to achive). Useless if it is 3 miles to work, but if you need to cross the city you might save fuel.
Put up a small windmill that generates power on top of your garage. Get/make an electric vehicle, recharge it every night. Sell the excess power to the electric company and get a check from them every month. See http://www.homepower.com/ for a starting point.