I'm watching CNN today run a story on how hybrid cars are really not all they are cracked up to be. People aren't getting the mileage they were promised on the sticker and are pissed.
At least, that's what CNN says.
Only at the end does CNN mention it's because the EPA changed the way they measure mileage for the first time in twenty-odd years and every single car's mileage estimates have gone down. CNN doesn't tell you how much.
Later, I switch to ABC (I need a life) and they run the same story. The Prius sucks, hybrids are hype, yadda yadda, the same spiel; however, ABC actually goes into the way mileage has gone down for all cars, even showing charts with numbers for all sorts of different makes and models, mostly hybrids and SUVs. Still they bump the story out with the same resigned hybrid owner sighing, another disappointment.
Neither CNN nor ABC tells you what the total mileage average for all cars today actually is but at least ABC tells you that it certainly hasn't improved in the last 20 years. According to what I've read, the 2004 EPA average for all cars was 21 MPG, which means it would be less using the new measurement protocol. Just for fun, the 1908 Ford Model T got 25 MPG but who knows how they arrived at that figure.
In 2004, students at Central High School in Phoenix, AZ built what is believed to be the first self-sustaining hydrogen vehicle that uses a conventional internal-combustion engine. "Nobody has ever made a car that runs on sunlight and water," physics teacher Cory Waxman said. "There are other cars that run on hydrogen, but they don't make their own fuel."
Built for less than $10,00 they did something most experts said it would take 20 years to do.
Does that mean if I give Central High $10,000 for a conversion on an existing car, I'd never have to buy gasoline again?