Are Hybrids the savior of the auto industry

[Ohighway]

Originally Posted by dmax99

Maybe they need to come up with a diesel-electric setup like train locamotives to power the big vehicles.

Probably not a bad idea. Diesels are efficient, and they're getting "cleaner" with the proper fuels and engine development, etc.

Maybe it's even time to re-visit the turbine engine? I know they didn't pan out for use as a straight substitute for a regular engine, but maybe if used in "hybrid" mode they could be an answer. They could be used in a more efficient RPM range, and could make use of a variety of fuels.

[Combwork]

I've been thinking about this for a while. What about a standard size battery pack that slides into a housing where the fuel tank would normally be. You go to the filling station, someone brings over a trolley, pulls out the old pack and slides in the new one. Changing packs shouldn't take longer than filling a fuel tank.

Long range zero emission driving. Standard size packs mean that as new designs with greater storage capacity are developed, the range between pack changes increases. Viable idea?

[Ozmoid]

Cultural and lifestyle changes will have to take place for full electrics to be effective any time soon - we will need to reduce our travel distances and speeds.

We need to make our lifestyle fit the available solution, and stop looking for solutions that fit our lifestyles - what would you do if your vehicles were taken away and replaced by horses? That 220 miles a day for work, school and ball games would be right out the window...

[hillbilly]

Originally Posted by Ozmoid

Cultural and lifestyle changes will have to take place for full electrics to be effective any time soon - we will need to reduce our travel distances and speeds.

We need to make our lifestyle fit the available solution, and stop looking for solutions that fit our lifestyles - what would you do if your vehicles were taken away and replaced by horses? **That 220 miles a day for work, school and ball games would be right out the window...

**

Yes it would be out the window. The population would be forced to live in the city nearest them and leave their piece and quiet in the sticks. I'd remain where I am though, and breed our mares back before they get old so we'd still be able to work the soil for the garden if no fuel was avalible for tractors or tillers. I guess they could force me off my land if I was being carried by six to be burried where ever they were planting me. Same way with guns, they can have 'em once they pry 'em from my cold dead fingers. It'd also piss off alot of us akers if we couldn't drive hundreds of miles cross country to shoot the shit with each other while enjoying our tunes. We could still pull it off though, just harness my horses upto your old van, and head out about a month early

If they went back to horses, I'd expect the government to do the same, grounding even their own planes. May as well do it right, hey?

[Combwork]

No electricity; listening to your tunes on a wind up phonograph while the missus cleans yer jeans with a washboard.....


Oh, give me a home, where the buffalo roam,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.


Yeehaa

[hillbilly]

I think we could get by with one of these rigs .... if we had Gilligan to peddle for us.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSJ0CeBYG0s

[Combwork]

Originally Posted by Ohighway

Probably not a bad idea. Diesels are efficient, and they're getting "cleaner" with the proper fuels and engine development, etc.

Maybe it's even time to re-visit the turbine engine? I know they didn't pan out for use as a straight substitute for a regular engine, but maybe if used in "hybrid" mode they could be an answer. They could be used in a more efficient RPM range, and could make use of a variety of fuels.

Absolutely. Rover (UK) had experimental gas turbine cars in the 1950's. They were reliable enough to put a small number out for road testing plus as you say, they could run on virtually any liquid fuel. Problem was they were very inefficient; best mpg was about half that of petrol. They kept on with research until the early 1970's (the P6 was designed with an oversize engine bay so it could take a gas turbine engine) but they couldn't crack the problem with fuel efficiency.

The idea of a hybrid running at most efficient turbine rpm driving a generator is interesting. But there would be the complexity of a three stage drive train instead of just one.