I got this off of Yahoo, the byline caught my attention... Hybrid hot rods, SUVs in the pipeline The coming generation of gas-electric hybrid vehicles will be hot rods and heavy haulers as automakers try to jazz up their image and broaden their appeal. "Hybrids won't be mainstream without performance," says Walter McManus, executive director of forecasting and analysis at J.D. Power and Associates. Hybrids have been considered underpowered, a compromise for fuel economy, "but they're addressing that." Mainstreaming means high volume - millions instead of thousands - and that's what it will take to bring down the high cost of sophisticated batteries and other high-tech components of gasoline-electric powertrains. "The potential is there," says Takeo Fukui, Honda (HMC) CEO. "Cost is the bottleneck. Mass production should help." Hybrids use electric motors to augment conventional gasoline engines. Originally developed as gas savers, they have used low-power gas engines. But U.S. buyers say that full-size accommodations - six-passenger room and four doors - are as important as environmental concerns, according to McManus' data. Hybrid systems in the next year and beyond are tuned to work with powerful V-6 and V-8 engines. Automakers claim the result will be sport-utility vehicles, pickups and vans with the power Americans expect from V-8 engines without the gas guzzling. "A priority for performance is built into this second-generation (hybrid) system, and you will see even higher performance systems" as development continues, says Toyota (TM) spokesman John Hanson. Toyota announced a hybrid version of its Highlander sport-utility vehicle during a press preview at the big annual auto show here this week. Figures aren't final, but Toyota internally is eyeing 15% more power and 40% better fuel economy than the conventional V-6 Highlander. Toyota said a super-power hybrid system is under development for the redesigned Tundra full-size pickup. The new Tundra goes on sale in 2006; hybrid timing is uncertain. Honda announced at the show that it will sell an Accord V-6 hybrid this year that should have at least 6% more power and about 40% better fuel economy than the conventional V-6 Accord. The Accord hybrid gets help on fuel economy by cutting off half the cylinders when only modest power is needed. Ford (F) has tweaked its planned hybrid Escape SUV, and General Motors' first hybrids are its V-8 trucks. "Will that make the environmentalists happy? Probably not," McManus says, "because they have an aversion to large SUVs. But if people don't buy the product, the fuel economy doesn't matter." The subcompact Geo Metro "got 60 miles per gallon, and nobody bought it, and it went away."
the electric drive motors have huge 0 rpm torque capacity, 400 ft-lbs is not uncommon. starting the burnouts is very simple. unfortunately the torque drops dramatically above 0 rpm so the tiresmoke never really develops. old schoolers have the edge here though, at least you know how to make generators work, it all comes full circle. brandon
The vw turbo diesels get almost 50 mpg- my father-in-laws turbo diesel dodge dually gets almost 25mpg- Do environmentalist's ever bring this up even though you can run bio-diesel in both with out any problems- most of this hybrid stuff is crap and it's going to take alot more than the auto industry talking big and not producing (which is what they have done for the last 10yrs) to convince the masses that any hybrid , especially this pipe dream of hydrogen, will produce the power we have become accustom to- thanks for the article
gears, the guy in the article said it all... [ QUOTE ] "Hybrids won't be mainstream without performance," [/ QUOTE ]
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