We Don’t Need No Stinking Sparky Cars

Alternative Subsidy 27 Comments

Financial Post;

Car makers are going back to the drawing board in the hunt for fuel-saving technologies as hopes that electric vehicles will be the silver bullet for CO2 emissions look increasingly forlorn.

h/t Kevin B

27 Replies to “We Don’t Need No Stinking Sparky Cars”

  1. And yet none of them seem willing to look at turbocharged diesel with water/methanol injection. Even though a plain-vanilla 2005 VW Golf TDI gets better mileage than a Prius -before- water injection is added.
    So really, I don’t think “fuel saving technologies” are on the top of their worry list. More likely they’re trying to figure out how to lawyer the next set of random idiocy coming down the pipe from CARB and the EPA.
    Which just goes to show, again, that 99.5% of what we read in the news is complete and utter horse sh1t.

  2. To think they are spending billions to meet CO2 emission standards that make no difference to anything. The free world deserves to go into the economic garbage can.

  4. It’s a real beatch that science is based on facts and the Law of Entropy, rather than leftist hopey changey dogma.
    Now if you can and refine the BS coming out of the states, they would have fuel for a millenia.

  5. And round and round we go… Back to the hydrogen cells of the “80’s.. Jail all the EPA honcho’s

  6. When governments offer to shovel money off the truck into the coffers of car companies, they will be more than happy to produce under performing vehicles that make the government feel better but do not work.

  7. N60, the Prius runs for about an average 44 mpg and the Jetta diesel for about 38 mpg. I checked your links using 2012 models instead of 2005. If anything it would appear that the Prius mileage has improved a bit since the 2005 models.
    However, the Prius costs you about $10,000 more. The question is, is the better mileage worth the extra up-front cost?

  8. Nof60….that site is lacking one very important parameter.When they figure the milage of hybrids,nowhere’s do they say whether that is TOTAL with gas/battery, or JUST gas.Not that it really matters. If I was a hydrid maker,I’d fudge my numbers any damn way the next guy giving me my bail-out told me too!!

  9. And they are still praying to the the next big thing battery
    Like the next big thing won’t burn you alive worse than CNG.
    Retards.
    dw

  10. Don’t go jumping to conclusions. Don’t be a fool and assume I’m defending the Prius. I merely pointed out the error in the opinion of the person who claimed that “a plain-vanilla 2005 VW Golf TDI gets better mileage than a Prius”. Got it now?
    I drive a diesel truck and a small gasoline car, both get adequate mileage as far as I’m concerned; I have no use for a Prius.

  12. From Toyota’s website (Canada): Prius base price: $26,100
    From Volkswagen’s website (Canada): Golf Wagon Clean Diesel: base price $27,025.
    Note VW does not offer the diesel on the base wagon (Trendline).
    In general, diesels excel on the highway where the hybrid is mediocre. The opposite holds true for city driving where regenerative braking conserves energy. Consumers Reports reports that Prius owners are extremely satisfied with their cars (disclosure – I drive a Mazda3).

  13. Again, energy density is the overlooked factor and just never seems to be brought up in the MSM. What I haven’t figured out is why the Euro-weenie’s haven’t mandated bicycles for transport in cities which would significantly reduce the obesity of the population as well as increasing gas mileage. Only problem with cycling is that the cost of food is more expensive than gasoline and while I’d like to be in as good shape now as I was when I cycled 50-100 miles daily, the 5000-6000 calories/day I needed to eat to do this would cost me more than driving the same distance.
    When the source of power for an electric vehicle is a small fusion reactor, then I’ll buy one. Until such time I’m sticking to gasoline. H2/O2 fuel cells are a great idea in theory, however the Pt or Pd catalyst will drive up the price of these metals to stratospheric levels if fuel cell vehicles are produced in quantity and for those who think that current electric vehicle fires after crashes are bad, just think of the nice fireball that would result from all of the H2 and O2 in a fuel cell vehicles tanks suddenly combining together.

  14. Cyclist, you may not know that Mazda is coming out with a diesel Mazda6 later this year, if I am not mistaken. I have a Mazda3 and a Mazda6 and love them both.

  15. “50-100 miles daily, the 5000-6000 calories/day I needed to eat to do this would cost me more than driving the same distance.”
    75 miles = 121 km. My Mazda3 averages 8.2 litres/100 km. This distance would require almost 10 litres of gasoline which I believe contains somewhat more energy than 6,000 calories (all measurements are kilocalories which is how food is measured). Wikipedia notes that the energy density of gasoline is 7594 Calories per litre. Over 75 miles, the energy in gasoline my Mazda3 would require is about 75,000 Calories.

  16. Mkelley:
    Yes I know. I was looking at the new Mazda6 when I was having my 3 serviced. Nice car – I wish they had a wagon. The 2,5 litre looks kind of small for that car. My wife had a 2004 Mazda3 and loved it. She bought a 2010 Mazda3 hatch given the 0% interest financing. I liked it so much that I bought a 2011 Mazda3 hatch (6 speed) and I love it.
    Ironically I will be in the market soon for a half ton pickup. Does anyone here have any thoughts comparing the F-150, RAM, Tundra, Silverado? Towing is the prime use (over 7,000 lbs.).
    BTW – my name – I’m a sport cyclist – roadie mainly.

  18. Cyclist….F150 with 3.5 (bi-turbo) get great gas milage, 11000 lbs towing capacity, and ford appears to have done their home work on their new line of F150’s. I own a F150 with 3.7 and am pleased, tho I don’t get the advertised milage because the tow pkg has 373 rear end/vs 350 on base truck. My sil has 3.5 and that puppy rocks, and can tow 7000 easily. Only thing is if you town a lot, get a 5 litre or the 6.2 litre,as heat disapation become a factor with constant heavy towing, and the bigger blocked engines disapate heat better.

  20. To make up the difference, carmakers have little choice but to squeeze more gains from existing engines as the costs and risks of developing breakthrough technologies are too high for most, said Klaus Stricker, a consultant with Bain & Company.
    “I don’t expect anything new to come into play in the next five to ten years,” Stricker said.
    The truth does exist! Obama promised a battery breakthrough (State of Union) What a stupid punk lying shit head!

  21. Cyclist, assuming your numbers are correct, that 10 liters of gasoline would cost $12.39 in the interior of BC today. I can’t buy 6000 calories worth of food I enjoy eating for $12.23. It would be nice if our bodies could utilize simple straight chain hydrocarbons for energy production as then we could drink gasoline, but a couple of steaks are far tastier and they alone cost more than the 10 liters of gasoline.
    Considering that on a bicycle I’m essentially just moving my body weight on low friction bearings, the primary loss of energy is moving my weight against gravity when cycling uphill and wind resistance. My daily cycling routes were determined by the direction of the wind as it was a lot easier to do the first 25-50 miles against the wind and then enjoy the ride back with the wind behind me.
    The fact that a human on a bicycle is capable of more than 100 mpg fuel efficiency gives one the potential fuel efficiency of a very light vehicle that wouldn’t travel very fast. I no longer cycle because I refuse to wear a helmet and because I’d much rather be surrounded by a ton of steel when sharing the road with idiots. A human on a motorized bicycle with lightweight aeordynamic shell would be able to go at reasonable speeds and still get in excess of 100 mpg. I’ll stick to my Grand Cherokee for now as I can easily afford the gasoline it consumes.

  22. In a city like Vancouver or Victoria where it’s seldom cold and hydroelectricity is the energy source, an electric or plug-in hybrid car is a perfectly viable option.
    Besides why should anyone care what kind of car someone wants to drive? Would you want someone telling you what kind of guns you could [or could not] own?

  23. Loki:
    I only cycle on lightly traveled county roads north of Toronto (or the occasional bike trail) for the reason you mentioned – idiots driving cars. Helmets are now so light and well ventilated that I can’t find a reason to not wear one. Several years ago, my wife and I were sitting at a sidewalk cafe in Cobourg. There was a sudden commotion – a man had fallen off his bike about 30 feet away and hit his head on the curb. He was bleeding from his head and going into convulsions while we waited for an ambulance. No one saw what happened; traffic was very slow so he didn’t get hit by a car. I think he may have tried to move away from a car and lost balance at a very slow speed. He wasn’t wearing a helmet which certainly would have helped. But, as I said, I’m a recreational cyclist and not a commuter and wearing a helmet does screw up your hair.

  24. N60
    Again, these vehicles are only good for localized travel, less than 60km for reliable transport (without running out of juice). That precludes anyone from commuting from the Westshore suburb to downtown Victoria and back, or anyone beyond Richmond or Burnaby for Vancouver.
    Sparky cars are a niche product only, for the eco-warrior set only. Until the range problem is solved (a quantum leap in storage capacity is required), these cars will be uneconomical for the companies and the individual.
    And when the storage problem is solved, then we have to deal with the large increase in demand for the power grid. My good friends with BC Hydro tell me that an increase in as little as 10% in power demand will crash the grid. Nice. And that’s without speaking to where that power will from (H-E, NG, nuclear (THORIUM!)etc) and, then there’s that wonderful two-tiered billing in BC, penalizing clean electrical power users……governments are so hypocritical, and these BC Liberals are no different, there is nothing rightwing about this bunch, despite the lefty critics.

  25. Electric cars are a feel good sop to the rich professionals who don’t want to take public transit.
    Anyone wanting to buy and use a sparky car would have to have a short drive (commute) to a fixed place (office/home) and have lots of money to waste on that pursuit (the price of such a specialized vehicle). Speaking personally I could never justify spending that kind of money on such a specialized piece of equipment.

  27. these cars will be uneconomical for the companies and the individual.
    The hundreds of BEVs in BC obviously nullify your opinion.
    Why should you care what kind of car someone drives? Isn’t it all about personal freedom to choose what you think is best for you?

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