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The Hybrid Scooter

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the i-want-my-water-engine dept.

anthemaniac writes "Hybrid cars are all the rage. Now comes a hybrid scooter. It gets beyond ethanol and lots of batteries, though, running on a hydrogen fuel cell that charges a battery. During braking, energy is also harnessed. All this and speedy too, says inventor Crijn Bouman of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. For now, however, the prototype lacks one crucial component: the hydrogen fuel cell! It's coming, Bouman says. Yes, just like $5/gal gas..."

1 of 337 comments (clear)

  1. Scooter? by daveschroeder · · Score: 1, Troll

    First of all, this isn't even a "hybrid", since it only seems to feature an electric motor. (And how is this news?)

    Second, I'm more interested in GM's next generation MY2008 GMT-900 full-size SUV platform (Tahoe, Suburban, Yukon, Yukon XL, Escalade, Escalade EXT): it will have a full/strong hybrid option, powered by both a 5.3L Vortec V8 featuring Displacement on Demand/Active Fuel Management, which can disable 2, 4, or 6 of the 8 cylinders as necessary, two 30kW electric motors and a continuously variable transmission (with the motors and transmission being in the same physical form factor as the conventional Hydramatic automatic transmission on non-hybrid models). These new SUVs will exceed the already-good fuel economy of the 2007 GMT-900 platform trucks which are already using active fuel management, pushing the city fuel economy to around 30mpg. Then is it still "wrong" to drive an SUV instead of an Accord? (*waits for chorus of "yes" for all kinds of ridiculous reasons* - please, bring out the safety and bumper height arguments too! Maybe all cars on the road can be identical, homogenous boxes that all look like Smarts!)

    Being responsible doesn't always have to equate to sacrificing things that are genuinely useful. It can mean making the things people like better.