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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.
As far as maintenance goes, I have found that I can get great deals on routince stuff. My dealership offered me a the same card as for other cars with 10 oil changes for $100. Because the car uses special oil and it is extra work to take off the wind screens under the car to change the oil, the changes can cost up to $50.
The other big expense will be replacing the batteries when they wear out. They are designed to last about half the life of the car and need to be replaced at about 80,000 miles. That should run about $5000.
In the end you are paying a bit of a premium for a hybrid, but you may find, as I did, that it is worth it. I can go 700 miles on a 10 gallon tank of gas. I also love explaining the tech features of my car. Everybody that sees it asks about it.
I call my car "The FJM". When I first got it, I went out to lunch at the local sandwich shop. There was construction on the street outside and it was hard to get around and into the parking lot. As a result, the parking lot was mostly empty. The sandwich shop hand unusually few customers. I parked my hybrid in the middle of the lot (no other cars around it at all) and went in to pick up lunch. The only other people in the shop we a couple of painters. Total redneck hicks. Beards, crooked teeth, the works. They got their sandwiches just before I did and I walked out the door just behind them. The first thing they saw when you walked out was a profile view of my car with little antenna an the roof and the wheel covers over the back tires. (Very sleek looking I think. ;-) As soon as they saw it, they stopped so abrubtly I just about ran into them. They stared for a couple seconds and then one of them put his hands on his hips and then crowed, "What the FUCK is that? A fuckin' Jetson mobile?". I showed them around the car, I don't think they were so keen on it, but I really liked the name they gave it.
Its not quite as impressive as the Honda Insight since its so much bigger, but it will get 40 MPG (combined city and highway) and have a range of around 500 miles on a tank of gas. The price is expected to increase by about 3k over its current 18k base rate for the hybrid model. And its based on a car/unibody chassis so you wont flip over if someone breathes on you. More details are here.
My mom bought a Toyota Prius last year and I often get the chance to take it for a spin. If you can deal with a waiting list, they are $20,000. Its pretty much the same car as a Toyota Echo, but with some interesting guts inside to make it run.
Its a cool car. The only way someone can tell if its electric is by noticing the car often does not make any noise when driving by. Except for the faint singing from the inverters that drive the car and charge the battery from braking. Did I mention the car is very quiet? When tooling around the city, the most noticeable thing you can hear is the fine gravel on the asphalt crunching under the tires.
A computer screen graphs what kind of energy the car is using at the moment and what kind of milage it is getting. With light effort, 80mpg (or more!) can often be achieved for a trip across town. Its a very smooth ride. On the highway with the traffic, the milage is much less, often dropping to about 45mpg. The gas savings could pay for this car very quickly.
How fast does it go? Acceleration is very good as cars go due to its variable speed transmission. Leaving a stop sign is very smooth and brisk without any jerking commmon with usual automatic or manual transmissions. Top speed may be just over 100mph. I remember reading a magazine (Road and Track?) documented a top speed of 102.
Since it is an "experimental" car, Toyota pays for all service for 4 years. The batteries have a 10 year warranty. We have had no problems with it yet, except for driving over debris from an accident, slashing a rear tire.
Oh, the stereo is awesome. Imagine hearing every faint noise during a concert when driving.
The air conditioner was great during the blistering summer. It will start the engine when the cooling system needs some fresh liquid freon (or whatever they use these days.)
Oh, you'll rarely notice when the engine starts to charge the battery. The engine seems to be well insulated from noise and vibration and starts almost instantly.
The way the engine-battery way this car works is pretty cool. When you put the key in, you start it like a normal car, but it tops off the batteries. I suppose you could run out of gas and just run on the batteries too. Perhaps you could disconnect the batteries and just run off the engine. Pressing on the gas in nuetral just starts the engine and revs it up. It can behave and act just like the normal cars we are used to. Very friendly operation.
Everyone needs to get one of these. Why people continue to buy cars that have the same room inside and gas milage of 30mpg or less is beyond my understanding. Yes, the interior has plenty of room for my step dad who weighs over 300lbs.
Prius
Estima minivan
If you are mechanically inclined and ambitious, you CAN make your own car that runs on grease if you like. Here are some good links on converting a gas cars into pure electrics or hybrids like the Insight. More links here.
On a tangentially related topic, for the slightly eccentric there's info on "performance" electric vehicles here. The world record holder's page is here. 8.801 seconds in the quarter on batteries, and the baby pulls 1200 amps. Amazing.
- Freed
"Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love." -Turkish Proverb
The Society of Automotive Engineers voted the Prius "best engineered car of 2001". It has a continuously variable transmission you could fit in your pocket, computer-controlled variable valve timing, and such sophisticated charge control that Toyota claims the battery is still in great shape after 150,000 miles of simulated testing in the lab. Still too early to be sure, but with some owners at 30,000 miles it looks like the Prius will have the reliability and durability you'd expect from a Toyota.
The drawbacks are that you can't really tow anything with it, the specialty low rolling resistance tires are hard to find, there are scattered reports of premature paint chipping, and if you break down in the boonies Joe's Garage doesn't have a chance of fixing it. And you have to wait at least four months to get one.
There's a ton of good real world information on http://groups.yahoo.com/toyotaprius, free registration required.
2002 should see a hybrid Honda Civic. 2003 may be the lanuch of the hybrid Dodge Ram, with the nifty feature of AC outlets so you can use your truck as a construction-site generator.
Honda has announced hybrid versions of its Civic for 2002 or 2003 in the US, if I remember correctly. While their Insight would be a great second car, it can't really work as a primary car for a single person-- a tiny two-seater with a 350 lb. weight limit isn't practical as an only car. The hybrid civic will be built with a traditional steel frame, so it should be more affordable than aluminum-frame cars like the insight. Look for the nifty gearless CVT automatic to show up on it, too-- I have one on my 2001 Civic HX (not a hybrid, but it gets 40mpg and is a ULEV) and it it's pretty sweet to always be at just the right rpm.
The Prius is okay, but Toyota's hybrid system seems more complicated to me (it can drive gas only, electric only, or both instead of gas with electric assistance like the honda) and I'd shy away from it until it's a few years more mature and less expensive. Honda's CVT transmission has been in use on the Civic HX since 1996, so it's a little more time-tested, and the simpler IMA hybrid system will have several years of work on the Insight to back it up.
In short, it looks more practical and cheaper than the insight, simpler than the prius, and is identical outwardly to an existing, popular car. I would wait for this one. (in fact, I tried to, but my '89 wagon finally quit completely a year and a half too soon for me to get one.)