Re: [DMCForum] Re: Plug-in Hybrid.

[Ryan Wright <ryanpwright@xxxxxxxxx>]

> No, I understand quite well how hybrids work. 

It sure didn't seem that way; The fact that the newest cars run the
A/C with an electric motor is well known, or so I thought.

> But there have infact
> been quite a few complaints from consumers that they are NOT
> delivering the gas milage promised on the sticker. As with the
> Insight, they have had people on TV out here complaining that they're
> getting worse gas milage, than other econmy cars out there.
> Especially because of the whole A/C system issue.

The people on TV are those select few that were hand picked to whine
and complain. Yes, there are people who are claiming to only get
~30mph in the Prius. Most seem to get 40-50mpg. The gas mileage one
gets in a hybrid is heavily dependent on how one drives. Drive it like
a sports car and you could very well end up only getting 35mpg.

> As a long term solution to our energy woes, hybrids are just not the
> answer. 

No arguments here. I agree completely.

> wouldn't own one. And being that I myself am a hard-core DIY'er who
> works on my own cars to keep them as long as possible, it's not worth
> it either. And batteries for these things ain't cheap either.

Why does battery cost even enter into the equation? Both Honda and
Toyota provide 8 year battery warranties (8y/80k miles Honda, 8y/100k
miles Toyota). I doubt most people will keep the cars that long.

> There are even reports on peak-platinum that say that we'll exhaust
> our supplies for hybrid batteries, long before we run out of fossil
> fuels themselves, which we're trying to conserve!

I don't believe that for a second. Do you have a link to the source of
this information?

The batteries in hybrid cars are just simple NiMH. Same thing they put
into billions of cellular phones and other consumer devices. We're not
going to exhaust our supplies for NiMH batteries anytime soon.

-Ryan

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