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Japanese Mileage Maniacs
WY writes "Bloomberg reports on the quirky world of Japanese hybrid car hackers: 'Toyota Motor Corp. says its Prius gasoline-electric hybrid car gets about 55 miles to the gallon, making it one of the most fuel-efficient cars on the road. That's not good enough for Takashi Toya.' He managed to reach as high as 115 MPG. He is one of about 100 nenpimania, Japanese for mileage maniacs."
Sure, I'm all for more fuel efficient cars and less fossil fuel burning, but there is a tradeoff.
Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
It is good to see people getting "real" good mileage. The Prius gets 55 MPG, the Geo metro and Honda civic in the late 80's and early 90 got mid 50's. I heard some GM exec on the radio yesterday talking about the new 50 MPG small cars they were bringing to market, what, "used Honda's"? If a regular engine can get 50+ MPG it shouldn't be hard for a Hybrid to get 70 or 80+, if not 100+.
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
Mileage mania? What does that make stretch Hummer/fuel injected racecar owners? Sufferers of Mileage Dementia/Depression?
My favorite motorcar extremists lately are the guys strapping together thousands of dollars worth of batteries to make ultra-high performance vehicles that still get 40 mpg. Sure, they have to go light and limited to 100 miles range per charge, but they end up with a true racecar that makes no sound except the burning of the wheels. That's just damn cool.
Mileage itself is a bit of a red herring though - there's always going to be a need for vehicles with 'horrid' milage, and 'wasting' that fuel to move earth, or just push a lot of metal - it really isn't an inherent problem to 'waste' fuel on big cars. The only real concern is the effect using that fuel in a fuel cycle. If going through that cycle returns the earth to a carbon-rich atmosphere, that's not a good thing. If the cycle doesn't involve such troublesome consequences though, then as long as the fuel is worth it's other negative effects (like on your wallet), then I don't see how it's a problem.
We just need better fuels and energy source paths. The market's having a hard time finding a good set of somethings for now - but the dynamics look to be changing, thanks in large part to a lot of nations making some rather interesting long-term investments in fuel research. If you get the right fuel, then I'd much rather have a fuel-inneficient car that theoretically retails for $12,000 after mass manufacture, than a maximized fuel efficient car that retails for $50,000. We need fuels we can waste, so we can consider fuel efficiency completely in terms of direct cost rather than indirect environmental impact as a society.
I look forward to being able to waste a lot of new kinds of fuel in the future. Here's hoping they come up with one that smells like rich coffee ice cream!
Ryan Fenton
I'd rather get my 30mpg and drive a comfortable, good looking car with enough power to boost around a triple-trailer semi truck without spending much time in his blindspot than get 116mpg and have to drive what looks like a douche electric shaver.
If you think US roads are poorly designed, please come to Japan and spend some time driving. These people in the article must spend all their time on farm roads during off hours. Japanese roads are by for the worst anywhere for cars. (and I have driven on four continents.) Nothing but stoplights, traffic and people. The stoplights are never synchronized and going anywhere in Japan by car painful by US standards. Why do you think they developed the hybrids in the first place? --- because of all the stop and go driving.
two) How exactly does sprawl help protect against nuclear terrorism? Maybe you mean low density sprawl, but only killing 10,000 people per square kilometer is hardly protection! especially since the terrorist would simply bomb the high density bits.
three) If low density development is encouraged, mass transit and bicycles become impractical, highways become necessary for most travel, and you end up with LA. have you ever driven in LA?
Since I only post to counter "groupthink", I EXPECT to be modded down.
US auto manufacturers have convinced Americans that they need 4,000 pounds of steel wrapped around them to feel "safe" on the roads, and that 25mpg is the price you pay for "safety." What they can't bring themselves to say is that the best safety gear is between your ears, but that's just because most Americans don't seem to have come with that as standard equipment.
(I'm an American, so I can speak from experience.)
I'm in the hole of the broadband donut.