I'm sure many of you have noticed the "hybrid fever" of late. The networks have been running a lot of pieces on hybrids in the carpool lane and special incentives for hybrid owners. The car companies are really starting to market them as well:
Toyota planning 10 more hybrids
By the end of this decade, Toyota plans for 25 percent of U.S. sales to be hybrid vehicles.
August 3, 2005; Posted: 12:56 p.m. EDT (1656 GMT)
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Toyota Motor Corp. plans to introduce 10 more gasoline-electric hybrid models globally by early next decade in a push to boost total sales of hybrids to 1 million, a top Toyota U.S. executive said.
I have a kind of long, but I believe important, story to tell on this, so if you care about the subject, please pass on the info I give after the fold...
I actually first became acquainted with the Toyota Prius on an intimate level in the summer of 2001. It was the first time I really needed a car, having moved away from the city and toward the rural lifestyle of Ukiah, California.
My wife and I got set to lease this new thing- a gas/electric hybrid. We took the test drive and, although the braking was kind of weird, we really wanted the high fuel economy. They told us they were special ordering one for us, and the day came when it had arrived and we were ready to sign the lease.
Unfortunately, the terms had changed from what we'd seen, and it didn't look like so hot a deal anymore. Even though our credit was stellar, the monthly payments had gone up in the final version of the lease, and we started feeling nervous about making this financial investment in a vehicle we would never own.
I called my dad, a CPA, and asked for advice. He started talking to me about our options, and it got back to this idea I'd researched a little bit- biodiesel. Why not just buy a cheap, older diesel Mercedes, and run biodiesel made by a friend who was homebrewing the stuff out of walnut oil in a local vineyard?
I thought about it, we gave up on the lease, and that began my illustrious biodiesel career (I later started a distribution company). Nowdays, we actually average better fuel economy in our 2003 diesel VW Jetta wagon than we would have had in that early Prius, and that's without using any petroleum!
What struck me was what Toyota's salespeople did when we began to move away from signing the lease. They actually started attacking us for making things hard for them- here they had this car that nobody wanted, special ordered for us, and it had a special battery that was going to get all screwed up sitting around at the dealership. It wasn't fair that we wouldn't sign the lease. That really got me- my wife, Sunny, was working in the renewable energy sector and knew a lot about batteries. They were selling a line of bull.
Back then you see, the Prius was more of a way for Toyota to get special subsidies from the government than anything else. They didn't market it (I know that seems hard to believe now), and they really didn't try hard to sell them.
Unfortunately, it turns out there is a hidden side to the automotive industry. While they publically state that they simply cannot achieve higher fuel economy standards, they are not only lying, which would be bad enough. It turns out that they have, in fact, created vehicles that are affordable and far more ecologically sound than anything most of you have dreamt of.
How's an under-$30,000, 72 MPG Dodge Intrepid hybrid that you could run on biodiesel sound? Oh yeah, it was made in the last century...
The following is from a June 10th, 2005 entry in my blog, Fueled for Thought:
Intrepid ESX-3
The ESX3 costs only about $7,500 more than a comparable gasoline-powered car, down from a $15,000 premium with the ESX2, and $60,000 with the ESX.
The ESX3's mild hybrid electric (or "mybrid") powertrain combines a clean diesel engine, electric motor, and lithium-ion battery to achieve 72 miles per gallon (3.3 liters/100 km). That is two miles per gallon better than the fuel efficiency of its predecessor, the ESX2 in 1998, and close to PNGV's goal of up to 80 mpg (2.9 liters/100 km).
A unique electro-mechanical automatic transmission (EMAT) provides the fuel efficiency of a manual transmission with the convenience of an automatic.
The lightweight body uses injection-molded thermoplastic technology that cuts weight and cost. The ESX3 weighs 2,250 pounds (1020 kg) while meeting all federal safety standards. The vehicle is more than 80 percent recyclable.
Rethinking the car's electronic and electrical systems cut several pounds from the weight of electronics while providing an ergonomic system of controls and indicators, high-performance audio and video systems, and a state-of-the-art telematics package.
You might be thinking, "What the fudge?!" (or something similar). It doesn't help that it's a very attractive car:
WHY DIDN'T THIS CAR GET MASS-PRODUCED??????? As if that isn't insulting enough, this is the final paragraph of the article I quoted above:
Elements have already been incorporated into other vehicles. The recently unveiled Dodge Durango hybrid prototype vehicle has 20 percent higher mileage. A thermoplastic hardtop will be available on the Jeep® Wrangler for the 2001 model year, while EMAT transmission technology is being developed for future production vehicles.
So the parts are okay but the sum of them ...isn't? Wait a minute, I think I've heard language like that before...
The fully functional car was on display at a company technology exhibit in Washington, D.C. DaimlerChrysler said it had no plans to mass produce the vehicle, but that some of the technology would show up in future vehicles.
...that's from a June 7th MSNBC article about a new "Fishy" car, which I talk about a couple blog entries back. It was produced by Dodge's parent company, Daimler Chrysler.
Oh my. This stuff is all real. They are playing you. Spread the word. Demand better.
UPDATE: A lot of people are asking certain questions about biodiesel, so here are a few links to help out.
1) Regarding "Can biodiesel upscale enough?":
link
2) Frequently asked questions about biodiesel:
link
3) Regarding claims about biodiesel's energy balance:
link
4) National map of biodiesel retail pumps:
link