The Best Hybrid Vehicle
So, you think the Toyota Prius is the best hybrid vehicle, or maybe you like the styling of the Honda Civic hybrid?
Maybe you only like SUVs and so you believe the Ford Escape hybrid is the best hybrid available?
Well, unfortunately, the best hybrid vehicle simply isn't being produced.
So, what would it take to create the best hybrid? In a word, a plug. (Finished in Comments)
Maybe you only like SUVs and so you believe the Ford Escape hybrid is the best hybrid available?
Well, unfortunately, the best hybrid vehicle simply isn't being produced.
So, what would it take to create the best hybrid? In a word, a plug. (Finished in Comments)
Labels: Civic hybrid, Escape hybrid, Ford, Ford Escape hybrid, Honda, honda civic hybrid, Hybrid Vehicles, plug-in hybrids, prius, toyota
posted by Dahcredyns at
12:01 PM
1 Comments:
Don't get me wrong, I love today's hybrid vehicles - all of them - well, as long as they are full hybrids. Still, the best thing about hybrid technology is that the best hybrid technology is yet to come. Hybrids are still just an emerging technology.
Flex fuel hybrids, clean diesel hybrids, bio-diesel hybrids, hydrogen hybrids, and fuel cell hybrids all have great potential, but the greatest hybrid is the plug-in hybrid vehicle.
Why?
For starters, any of the above mentioned hybrids could also be plug-in hybrids, such as a plug-in hydrogen hybrid. More important, however, plug-in hybrids offer one of the best platforms for integrating fuel cells into automobiles. Quite simply, a plug-in hybrid "allows the best of fuel cell and battery technologies to co-exist in one vehicle with extended driving range, zero emissions, and domestically produced fuel." (more)
This means we can have the most fuel efficient vehicles available with today's technology, and add in new technologies as developed - in the same platform - instead of waiting decades for cheap fuel cell vehicles.
O.K., that's great, but the electric grid isn't ready for PHEVs yet, right?
Maybe, maybe not. Most studies seem to indicate that most drivers would plug-in at night, when electric demand is lower and less expensive. Furthermore, imagine what plug-in capabilities could do for the alternative energy market.
For example, in California, solar roofs now recover their costs in about 20 years. Imagine if you added in the cost of the majority of your automobile fuel into the roof as well. That could easily shave off 5 years, maybe even 10, of the price of a solar roof.
Why not even add solar panels to the vehicles themselves?
Ultimately, plug-in hybrid vehicles create the convergence of technologies that will power the next generation of automobiles, homes, computers and energy infrastructures - at least they could. Instead of spending trillions of dollars protecting our oil addiction, why not fund a new energy paradigm that could spawn massive technological innovations that could result in new high-tech, high-paying jobs - not to mention foreign-oil free and clean energy.
Successful business people often share some interesting beliefs, one of which is that you have to dream big in order to achieve big dreams. I say countries should do the same.
What is America waiting for? Join the campaign for plug-in hybrid vehicles.
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