Hybrid vehicles

[Valmy]

Interesting. My 05 Neon, w/152k, still gets 33-34 on highway. 85% of my driving is highway and not stop and go city driving.

My car is also an 05 Neon but I am usually in stop and go city traffic and so is the Camry.  Traffic is really horrible in this city...I mean not LA horrible or anything but bad enough.

[Valmy]

  My opinion of Valmy has been readjusted.

I did not pick either of those cars.

[MadBurgerMaker]

I did not pick either of those cars.

Well....okay.  Hookem and all that.

E:  Austin traffic doesn't need any qualifiers.  It's bad.  "WHY IS IT THIS BAD GODDAMMIT I JUST WANT TO GO TO FT WORTH AHHHHHHHHH" bad.  It's remarkably similar to what I was yelling when I was living in SoCal and driving around on the 5.

[Zanza]

I'm no car expert but I think a lay person would call the Volt an electric car and not a hybrid. You plug it in. To me a hybrid means that it runs off of a gas engine and has a battery that charges during deceleration/braking and kicks in to help with acceleration. Is that wrong?

That's a very narrow definition of hybrid. Generally, all cars that have both electric and combustion elements in their powertrain are called hybrid, but there are plenty of differences between a mild hybrid that merely uses the electric motors to accelerate a bit faster, but can't propel the car by itself, to a range-extender like the Volt that uses the combustion engine merely to provide electricity for the electric motors.
Electric vehicles typically do not have a combustion engine at all.

[Zanza]

Personally, hybrids seem a bit of a dead end to me.  The idea is nice in theory, but so far the execution doesn't seem to be more efficient, in the long-term.  If I were to go for a car that sips fuel, I'd rather go for a diesel car (but that largely limits you to German cars).

You could go for a diesel hybrid. Oh wait, they don't sell those in America. 

[DGuller]

Personally, hybrids seem a bit of a dead end to me.  The idea is nice in theory, but so far the execution doesn't seem to be more efficient, in the long-term.  If I were to go for a car that sips fuel, I'd rather go for a diesel car (but that largely limits you to German cars).

Well I just know my Camry gets 30+ mpg which is significantly better than my Neon, despite the Neon being a smaller car.  Also the Camry is nicer (granted it is 5 years newer so it should be) and did not cost that much more.

They are not God's answer to fuel efficiency (they are better but not eye poppingly so) but they are pretty nice and there are some good ones out there.

In the short term, they definitely do get better fuel mileage.  However, the higher up-front costs, as well as the uncertainty regarding the life of the battery, make it too much of a risk to me.  It's one thing when a battery in the cell phone peters out, it's another thing when it does that in a car.  You probably wouldn't want to throw away your car after half a dozen years.

[Ideologue]

my Camry

my Neon

My opinion of Valmy has been readjusted.

[DGuller]

Personally, hybrids seem a bit of a dead end to me.  The idea is nice in theory, but so far the execution doesn't seem to be more efficient, in the long-term.  If I were to go for a car that sips fuel, I'd rather go for a diesel car (but that largely limits you to German cars).

You could go for a diesel hybrid. Oh wait, they don't sell those in America. 

I don't understand the point of diesel hybrids.  My understanding is that gasoline engines are near their optimum efficiency in a narrow range, which is why coupling them with more flexibly efficient electric motor can get you the best of both worlds.  However, my understanding is that diesel engines don't suffer from this weakness to nearly the same extent, so what do you win by introducing enormous complexity of the hybrid drivetrain?

[MadBurgerMaker]

Did you roll in a Neon followed by a Camry as well? 

Huh. 

[Gups]

Well I just know my Camry gets 30+ mpg which is significantly better than my Neon, despite the Neon being a smaller car.  Also the Camry is nicer (granted it is 5 years newer so it should be) and did not cost that much more.

They are not God's answer to fuel efficiency (they are better but not eye poppingly so) but they are pretty nice and there are some good ones out there.

That sounds really low to me. I get more than 40mpg from my Jag although that is a diesel.

[Zanza]

British gallons and American gallons are not the same. Metric system FTW.

[11B4V]

British gallons and American gallons are not the same. Metric system FTW.

Like this.

The imperial gallon
The imperial (UK) gallon, defined as 4.54609 L, is used in some Commonwealth countries and was originally based on the volume of 10 pounds of water at 62 °F (17 °C). (A US liquid gallon of water weighs about 8.33 pounds at the same temperature.) The imperial fluid ounce is defined as 1⁄160 of an imperial gallon.

The US liquid gallon
This gallon is defined as 231 cubic inches,[2] and is equal to exactly 3.785411784 litres or about 0.13368 cubic feet. This is the most common definition of a gallon in the United States. The US fluid ounce is defined as 1⁄128 of a US liquid gallon.

So, his Jag gets shittier mileage than 40 mpg?

[Eddie Teach]

my Camry

my Neon

My opinion of Valmy has been readjusted.

Nobody's ever thought of you as a Texan.

[Gups]

British gallons and American gallons are not the same. Metric system FTW.

Had no idea, thanks.

[garbon]

Who plugs in a hybrid battery?

The Volt was designed for plug-in charging.  Since the Volt has a range of ~90mi on straight battery power, Volt owners who make short trips never need to turn the engine on.

Alright fair, there is that subgroup of hybrids. Odd though to talk about them as representative of the entire class.