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Another Stab At Sorting Hybrid Hype From Reality
Attila Dimedici writes "Eric Peters makes the case that hybrids have been over-hyped. His argument is that in order to sell people on hybrid cars, automakers have emphasized the energy efficiency of hybrids in ideal conditions and failed to tell people that in most ordinary driving conditions they will not come close to meeting the numbers given. He refers to a recent case where an individual has chosen to forego membership in a class action law suit and has instead chosen to go to small claims court. He suggests that there is a significant chance that she will win there and that this will open up all of the manufacturers of hybrid vehicles to similar lawsuits.
The article was on a rather partisan website, so I am curious what factors he has chosen to overemphasize to make his case. (Or what factors he has chosen to ignore to the same end.) I know that Slashdot has a large contingent of hybrid and EV supporters who are well educated on the subject (as well as a large contingent of those who are not so well educated)."
For all kinds of cars the energy efficiency is measured in ideal conditions and quite often is very far from what you get in real life.
"None have complained about having to fork over money for a new battery system yet." Just forked over $3K for a new battery pack on a 2002 Prius. Expect no more than 10 years. The wave of battery failures is just starting.
Since the EPA does the testing and approves the mileage figures, doesn't this shield the manufacturers from liability for inflated numbers? The EPA sets the testing criteria. I know that I never hit the estimated city mileage for my conventional car and never expected to, so I only use the published gas mileage numbers to see relative mileage between cars. I never thought I'd hit that number exactly.
That said, the Prius owners I know are quite happy with their 40mpg+ mileage and are close or even over the published mileage. Granted, it takes a difference in driving style to hit that number (for example, by maximizing regenerative braking), but most people that buy a Prius are willing to help it maximize their mileage.
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If I had space to park two cars at my house, I'd have an electric one as a regular vehicle, but with certain transportation needs, I'm not able to find them in an electric vehicle yet and I can't afford the conversion costs.
If you live in a city, one option to having 2 cars might be to join a city car share program. If you rarely need the range of a gas powered engine, it could be a cost effective alternative to owning two cars. Plus you can choose the car that best meets your needs - take a sporty convertible for a weekend getaway with your wife, take a minivan on the long trip with the kids, take a pickup truck to the hardware store, etc.
http://www.zipcar.com/
http://www.citycarshare.org/
The only way your GTI gets 31 mpg is if the stoplight in question is at the top of the mountain and you coast the rest of the way down. Sheesh! You're not going by what you see while cruising on the highway up on the trip computer, right? (BTW, 'trip computers' are notoriously bad from what I've seen. If you go to forums for a particular car and look at what the trip computer folks are reporting, vs. the people who really measure, you can often see a 5-10 mpg difference, with the trip computer almost always reading high.) GTI's typically run in the 16-22 mpg range, depending on how driven and type of driving from what I've seen.
You're correct however, about the TDIs. Our Jetta TDI has averaged 34.58 mpg over about the last 1.5 years in mostly city driving (measured by filling the tank at the same station and pump most of the time, and recording the amount of fuel and distance traveled each time... not quite as accurate as some methods, but much better than the trip computer.... and over that long of time, it starts to become pretty accurate.) We've never really taken a true highway trip. The closest we came is a trip through the mountains where we got 41 mpg for a tank. I know the TDIs are capable of much better in true highway situations.
Which if you think about it is pretty pathetic. Diesel cars have been able to get that for years. There are definitely places like Minnesota where diesel is a lot less realistic, but hybrids aren't going to make much sense there either as batteries don't like the cold any more than diesel does.
Agreed, mid-40s in miles per US gallon is pathetic indeed. I drive a diesel Mercedes C stationwagon (similar in size to the Prius V), and average at least 55mpg (US gallons) in our usual mix of driving, which encompasses comparable distances of highway, rural dirt road, suburban, and urban driving. In summer it usually gets better than 60mpg, mostly because the road conditions are less likely to be nasty. The car is almost 9 years old, and has about 320000km on the clock.
Incidentally, I live in central Finland, which has winters not dissimilar to those of Minnesota (been there, in summer and winter and in the transitions between them). Relatively modern diesel cars are quite OK in such climates; the filling stations change the diesel mix for winter to account for the cold.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Disclaimer: I own a 2007 Honda Civic hybrid.
The complaint about the Civic hybrid is that the car was sold as achieving 48/51 mpg according to EPA estimates.
With normal driving (normal = the type of driving seen every day, exhibited by most drivers), it was not possible to get much closer than 10 mpg of those figures when the car was purchased.
Now, this hybrid has a power assist design (different to the Prius), which lends itself to easily draining the battery - climbing a hill, for example - and the battery only has a limited number of power/drain cycles before it needs replacing.
It turns out that the programming on these cars was initially set to provide more 'assist' - thus improving the published mpg figures - but that has led to premature failures of the battery, leading to many warranty replacements.
Honda's response to this design dilemma? Change the programming so that the power assist is much more frugal. This reduces the cycles on the battery which makes them last longer, but means that the car now averages about 30mpg, since you have less assist from the battery when you need it.
So now, instead of having a car that is somewhat better than the non-hybrid counterpart, it is about the same at best, and has few or none of the attractive attributes that Honda used to sell the car.
We are upset at being conned by Honda selling the car as a high-performing hybrid, and later effectively remove most of the benefits of the hybrid because their design doesn't work.
*Still* negative function...