Detroit's best bet, hybrid vehicles.
A recent article in Businessweek covering the outlook for auto manufacturing in the United States, Borrowing from the Future, states "After years of lavish sales incentives, demand for cars is flat. With higher interest rates ahead, Detroit's best bet is to offer better cars.
GM and Ford U.S. market share is at historic lows, even following a year full of $5000.00+ rebates on many vehicles. Now even incentives can't lure enough car buyers.
Better cars, the article reiterates again and again, is the only thing that can save the last two American automakers.
A better car, it seems, would be derived from intelligent design and intelligent, innovative technology. Any design that incorporates waste or inefficiency into the design, cannot be seen as intelligent, or innovative.
Yet that is what many trucks and SUVs represent, an inefficient design built on inefficient technology.
The Toyota Prius, on the other hand, is probably the most innovative designed and technologically mass-produced automobile in the world. When compared side-by-side with the Ford Escape hybrid, the Toyota Prius is, unquestionably, much more efficient.
The hybrid Escape, built on leased Prius technology, is somewhat inefficient by design, due to it's SUV platform. Nonetheless, when all is said and done, the Escape hybrid is still the most efficient Escape. However, if one drives a loaded V6 Escape and a loaded hybrid Escape, the conventional vehicle will out perform it's hybrid cousin - in speed and acceleration.
So, are hybrids better than conventional vehicles?
It took Toyota a few generations of production to create a Prius hybrid capable of competing with non-hybrids in average consumer interest.
And hybrids are becoming better and better.
Honda's third hybrid, the Accord Hybrid, did something the Escape hybrid did not. It became the best Accord ever.
Reduced pollution and reduced fuel efficiency was only the beginning for the Honda Accord hybrid. Aside from these environmental credentials, the Accord hybrid is also the best performer of all Accords, picking up almost a second in acceleration on it's conventional cousin.
Toyota's next hybrid, the Lexus RX400h, is to offer significant more horsepower than it's conventional Lexus counterpart. Horsepower, long considered the main sizzle factor for American auto consumers, is now becoming the domain of hybrids.
The potential of hybrid vehicles is just beginning. What started as an experiment in fuel efficiency has become a demonstration of increased efficiency leading to increased speed and power.
More important hybrids represent an important step into the future, laying down a foundation for easier hydrogen and fuel cell integration.
Hybrid cars will continue to out-perform their conventional cousins in every measure of vehicle performance, and prices will go down.
When that happens, conventional cars will look about as appealing as VCRs next to a stack of DVD players.
GM and Ford U.S. market share is at historic lows, even following a year full of $5000.00+ rebates on many vehicles. Now even incentives can't lure enough car buyers.
Better cars, the article reiterates again and again, is the only thing that can save the last two American automakers.
A better car, it seems, would be derived from intelligent design and intelligent, innovative technology. Any design that incorporates waste or inefficiency into the design, cannot be seen as intelligent, or innovative.
Yet that is what many trucks and SUVs represent, an inefficient design built on inefficient technology.
The Toyota Prius, on the other hand, is probably the most innovative designed and technologically mass-produced automobile in the world. When compared side-by-side with the Ford Escape hybrid, the Toyota Prius is, unquestionably, much more efficient.
The hybrid Escape, built on leased Prius technology, is somewhat inefficient by design, due to it's SUV platform. Nonetheless, when all is said and done, the Escape hybrid is still the most efficient Escape. However, if one drives a loaded V6 Escape and a loaded hybrid Escape, the conventional vehicle will out perform it's hybrid cousin - in speed and acceleration.
So, are hybrids better than conventional vehicles?
It took Toyota a few generations of production to create a Prius hybrid capable of competing with non-hybrids in average consumer interest.
And hybrids are becoming better and better.
Honda's third hybrid, the Accord Hybrid, did something the Escape hybrid did not. It became the best Accord ever.
Reduced pollution and reduced fuel efficiency was only the beginning for the Honda Accord hybrid. Aside from these environmental credentials, the Accord hybrid is also the best performer of all Accords, picking up almost a second in acceleration on it's conventional cousin.
Toyota's next hybrid, the Lexus RX400h, is to offer significant more horsepower than it's conventional Lexus counterpart. Horsepower, long considered the main sizzle factor for American auto consumers, is now becoming the domain of hybrids.
The potential of hybrid vehicles is just beginning. What started as an experiment in fuel efficiency has become a demonstration of increased efficiency leading to increased speed and power.
More important hybrids represent an important step into the future, laying down a foundation for easier hydrogen and fuel cell integration.
Hybrid cars will continue to out-perform their conventional cousins in every measure of vehicle performance, and prices will go down.
When that happens, conventional cars will look about as appealing as VCRs next to a stack of DVD players.
Labels: Accord hybrid, Escape hybrid, Ford, Ford Escape hybrid, fuel efficiency, GM, Honda, hybrid trucks, Hybrid Vehicles, Lexus hybrid, prius, toyota
posted by Dahcredyns at
1:08 PM
1 Comments:
More people should learn about electric vehicles as a solution. "Zero emissions" is something that's going to be required by law one day (you know it will). Making the decision to go electric is far cheaper anyway, like 10 cents on the dollar vs. gas. (source: zapworld.com)
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