The Daily Telegraph says a lot of good things and stupid things. This one falls into the latter category:

‘Top Gear effect’ blamed for environmentally unfriendly image of motorsports

Look, I love Top Gear but it’s a TV show and all which that implies. It’s sometimes silly and shallow. It’s sometimes quite stupid. It is however, frequently entertaining, something which more TV shows could look into.

And with all that said, Top Gear isn’t the problem. It’s “motorsports” which are the problem. Let’s be realistic. Motorsports are defined as sports with motors in them, and by that I mean, gasoline motors, often, large, loud, polluting, fuel inefficient motors. It’s the way the genre has been defined for generations. Top Gear is hardly to blame for this.

And while I’ll leave the main blame laying to others I’ll tell you who I think is also to blame for this, many of us eco-driving warriors, that’s who.

Look, cars, motorcycles and the lot are fun. They are. You can do all sorts of exciting things with them and people do. They drive them in circles really fast. They drive over exciting and challenging dirt surfaces. They drive them in marathons. They crash them into each other. They do things with vehicles that are exciting, for many people, to watch.

What have we, the alt-car crowd come up?

MPG challenges.

Seriously. That’s our contribution to motorsports.

Why aren’t having fun with fuel efficient cars? Why aren’t coming up with exciting new ways to compete in vehicles that aren’t necessarily wasting inordinate amounts of fuel and creating enormous clouds of oil tinged pollution? What have we done to change the existing paradigm? Nothing. Well, very little.

It’s partially our fault the public thinks fuel efficient cars (and EVs and electric scooters…) are boring because that’s all we shown them. We can drive them slow, we can compete saving fuel. Chess is exciting in comparison. And don’t get me wrong, MPG Challenges are fun (for some of us). I’ve been to more than a few but frankly, it’s never going to be a widespread phenomena and for good reason.

It is incumbent upon us, the fuel efficient, low pollution devotees to come up with something less environmentally disastrous than the Daytona 500 and slightly more exciting than watching corn grow. I think we can do it if we try.

One of the most fun things I saw at the Tour del Sol in 2006 was the autocross competition amongst the vehicles there (EV’s, biodiesel, hybrids and whatnot). That was fun. It was relatively low impact and it was a chance to use those vehicles in ways most people never consider. Why aren’t we, we being the green car community, doing more things like that? Why aren’t we sponsoring efficiency contests that not only reward MPG but add in a real life element, time. If all you are doing is managing your MPG chances are, you’re a road hazard. However, if you had to do that and stay within a realistic time bracket, suddenly your skills must be a bit more attuned to, dare I suggest, the real world? The world most people live in? I’d like to see more rally style competitions where timing and efficiency are the point. Rewarding only efficiency is too narrow. There’s no reason why we can’t organize fun rallies that aren’t tortoise versus tortoise competitions. Car clubs do it all the time.

And I don’t mean to limit these competitions by other traditional definitions. Why doesn’t a car company who is often proud that so many of their older vehicles are on the road honor that more tangibly? Yes, building a great car is the main point but again, we’re talking about changing paradigms here. For most of my life I was a devoted Volvo owner (until I bought my very first new car, my 2005 Prius). Volvo has a wonderful program whereby they send very nicely done metal plaques to owners of Volvo who have clocked over 100,000 miles. They also do it for 250K and 500K. What a great program, rewarding and recognized longevity. And while this isn’t exactly related to what I am discussing here, it is outside the “norm” when we think about cars. It’s this kind of thinking that we need to engage in.

I’ve always wanted to put one of these logos on my Prius. Why? Well, I love the idea that TRD isn’t just about bigger, louder, faster. I love the idea that anything can be “raced”. A great driver can compete, in any number of ways, in any vehicle. So yes, right now I love the TRD logo that isn’t (but should be) on my Prius because it’s kind of ridiculous. But I also love it for what it could represent, a rebellion against the louder, faster, bigger and towards something else. A whole new definition of performance that isn’t so narrowly defined.

Which brings me to the final bit of finger-pointing, I’m going lay part of the blame one other place. The car companies. All of them. They spend tens of millions of dollars supporting motorsports as they exist now. They have, as much as anyone else, created the paradigm that bigger, louder, faster and gas-hoggier is better. It’s time they diverted a small amount of that money in a different direction. It’s time for, especially the companies for whom fuel efficiency is a major selling point (Yes, my dear friends in Torrance, I’m talking to you) to invest some small part of what they pump into F1, NASCAR and all the rest helping to build a new paradigm. A paradigm which, I would hasten top point out, supports their long term business model much better than NASCAR or Formula One. This won’t be changed overnight. It will take decades but now is the time to help the pioneers reshape the perception of the personal transportation device, help people who are trying to reframe the conversation away from horsepower and torque to one where agility, efficiency and versatility are more important. You can do it. After all, you built the existing motorsports model. Imagine in fifty years people looking back with a whole new view of “motorsports” and seeing what we could do today as groundbreaking. Now that’s exciting. If we do it.

DETROIT, January 11, 2010—Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A, Inc., today unveiled the FT-CH dedicated hybrid concept at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit. The FT-CH is a concept that would address Toyota’s stated strategy to offer a wider variety of conventional hybrid choices to its customers, as it begins to introduce plug-in hybrids (PHVs) and battery electrics (BEVs) in model year 2012, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCHVs) in 2015 in global markets.

“Within the next 10 to 20 years, we will not only reach peak oil we will enter a period where demand for all liquid fuels will exceed supply,” said Jim Lentz, TMS president. “A century after the invention of the automobile, we must re-invent it with powertrains that significantly reduce or eliminate the use of conventional petroleum fuels. One of many alternatives is through what is commonly called the electrification of the automobile. By far, the single most successful example of this has been the gas-electric hybrid.”

The CH stands for compact hybrid as in compact class and it’s a concept that can best be defined by comparing it with the mid-size class Prius. The FT-CH captures the spirit and functionality of a car that thrives in the inner-city environment; sized right to be nimble, responsive and maneuverable.

“It’s a package Toyota dealers and customers have been asking for,” added Lentz.

The FT-CH was styled at Toyota’s European Design and Development (ED²) center in Nice, France. Compared to Prius, it is 22 inches shorter in overall length, yet loses less than an inch in overall width. In spite of its compact external dimensions, FT-CH was designed for maximum passenger comfort and interior roominess, with an imaginative sense of style.

ED² designers looked to capture the vivid, high-energy appeal of what has come to be called the 8-bit generation. Popularized in the early 80’s, 8-bit microprocessor technology dominated the budding home video game industry. Today, 8-bit is considered a specific retro-style that is embraced by such things as 8-bit genre music and 8-bit inspired art.

The direct reference to the 8-bit generation is meant to be fun and innovative, colorful and stylish, with strong appeal to young buyers. Lighter in weight and even more fuel efficient than Prius, the concept specifically targets a lower price point than Prius, thus appealing to a younger, less-affluent buyer demographic.

Pointing to how Prius has become a universal icon for hybrid technology, Lentz confirmed that TMS is developing a Prius family “marketing strategy” for North America that will take full advantage of the Prius brand equity.

“The strategy is still taking shape and obviously it will require additional models to qualify as a family,” said Lentz. “Among others, the FT-CH is a concept that we are considering.”

In the early 2010s, Toyota plans to sell a million hybrids per year globally, a majority of those in North America. To accomplish this, Toyota will launch eight all new hybrid models over the next few years. These will not include next generation versions of current hybrids; instead, they will be all new dedicated hybrid vehicles, or all new hybrid versions of existing gas engine models.

The heart of hybrid technology is its battery. Since the early 90’s, during the early stages of first-generation Prius development, Toyota has been committed to in-house R&D of advanced nickel-metal hydride batteries. Through three generations
of Prius and a total of seven full-hybrid models, it has systematically reduced size, weight and cost while improving energy density, quality and reliability.

Toyota’s joint venture partnership with Panasonic has been a key element of its success in the advancement of hybrid technology. Later this year, Panasonic EV Energy (PEVE) will have three separate, fully operational production facilities with a combined capacity of more than one million units per year.

Moving the promise of electrification one step further, Toyota recently kicked off its global demonstration program involving approximately 600 Prius plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Beginning early this year, 150 PHVs will begin to arrive in the U.S. where they will be placed in regional clusters with select partners for market/consumer analysis and technical demonstration.

The Prius PHV introduces Toyota’s first generation lithium-ion drive battery. When fully charged, the vehicle is targeted to achieve a maximum electric-only range of about 13 miles and capable of achieving highway speeds of more than 60 mph in electric-only mode. For longer distances, the Prius PHV reverts to “hybrid mode” and operates like a regular Prius. This ability to utilize all-electric power for short trips or hybrid power for longer drives alleviates the issue of limited cruising range encountered with pure-electric vehicles.

All program vehicles will be equipped with data retrieval/communication devices which will monitor activities such as: how often the vehicle is charged and when, whether the batteries are depleted or being topped-off during charging, trip duration and all-electric driving range, combined mpg and so on.

As it becomes available, data from the program vehicles will be posted to a dedicated Web site. This in use, readily available data will help consumers understand how the vehicles are being used and how they’re performing.

Toyota believes this demonstration program is a necessary next step in societal preparation in that it allows Toyota the unique opportunity to inform, educate and prepare customers for the electrification of the automobile in general and the introduction of plug-in hybrid technology.

Toyota is moving quickly with the development of PHV technology well beyond this demonstration program. Advanced battery R&D programs with nickel-metal, lithium-ion and “beyond lithium” are underway for a wide variety of applications in conventional hybrids, PHVs, BEVs and FCHVs.

In the early 1990s, Toyota began R&D on building a practical and affordable hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. FCHV technical advancements have moved at a rapid pace. Engineers have made great strides in cost reduction targets in both materials and manufacturing and Toyota is committed to bringing hydrogen fuel cells to global markets in 2015.

Toyota’s latest model, the Toyota FCHV-advanced began its own national demonstration program late last year. Over the course of the three year program, more than 100 vehicles will be placed in an effort to demonstrate the technology’s performance, reliability and practicality in everyday use.

Recently field tested in southern California by two national laboratories at the request of the U.S. Department of Energy, the FCHV-advanced confirmed an estimated single-tank fuel range of 431 miles. In combined city and highway driving from Santa Monica to San Diego the FCHV-adv logged an estimated 68 miles per kilogram of hydrogen, the rough equivalent of 68 miles per gallon. That range is equivalent to a Highlander hybrid at more than double the MPG with zero emissions other than water vapor.

In 1997, Toyota introduced the RAV4 EV battery electric vehicle in California. 1,484 of these 100 mile range large-battery electric vehicles were either sold or leased over the course of the program. Nearly half are still on the road.

Shortly thereafter, Toyota started a modest demonstration program with a small- battery electric urban commuter vehicle, called the e-com. This concept addressed the idea of the “on-demand” city station car similar to the Zip-car business model that is becoming popular in large urban areas. Although shorter in range, the e-com program addressed a specific mobility niche at a much more affordable price than the RAV4 EV.

The RAV4 EV and e-com programs were short lived due to lack of commitment from the market; the consumer and the consumer’s environmental mind set were not ready to commit to battery electric vehicles at that time. Recent increased awareness of environmental issues and the benefits of advanced technology vehicles have reinvigorated an interest in the electric vehicle market. As a result, Toyota will bring a small, urban commuter lithium-ion BEV to market in model year 2012.

Battery technology has progressed significantly in the time since the RAV4 EV and e-com programs. But major challenges still remain. The cost of lithium-ion batteries needs to be reduced significantly, or a more affordable alternative developed.

Like hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, battery electrics will require the creation of infrastructure for recharging on the go. This issue of range is also a challenge to overcome. Even at 100 miles, BEVs as a primary mode of transportation do not yet offer what most consumers see as true mobility.

Toyota believes these are hurdles that will be cleared. For the last decade its focus has been to concentrate on a comprehensive advanced technology strategy including BEVs, PHVs, and FCHVs. Common to all three is the move to electrification, the full commitment to advanced battery technology and how lessons learned from conventional hybrid R&D have given Toyota a leg-up on all three.

John Voelcker from Green Car Reports was kind enough to respond in comments below to this POG piece. I wanted to republish it on the front page, as it were, because I thought it was a great response and deserved better billing than the comments section.

Russell: Thanks for the good words. All of the questions in your last paragraph are very apt, and many of us will ask them as the cars get closer to the hands of actual drivers.

As for your comment on my closing question, I could probably have phrased it better. Here’s the point I was trying to get to …

Both cars are plug-ins, and hence will be perceived as “electric cars”. That is, users will expect them to run in electric mode some or most of the time.

From talking to Toyota and GM tech folks, I gather the Prius Plug-In may start its engine under many circumstances: Heavy load, full acceleration, a catalyst that’s cooling down, cold weather, and so forth. It remains fundamentally a power-split hybrid with a larger battery, and operates as such.

On the other hand, the Volt engineers tell me it switches on the engine only under one circumstance: The pack is depleted, which they say occurs only after 40 miles. (It may also fire the engine to start the car in extremely cold weather; must ask about that.)

SO, my question might better be: Will plug-in buyers expect continuous electric running for the stated range (12 or 40 miles)? If they do, I suspect the Prius Plug-In may have a perceptual problem, because it may well not run all-electric for 12 continuous miles. If not, no problem.

In either case, GM and Toyota are likely to be sold out of their first couple of years of production.

It’s in 2014 and after, as volume rises, that they’ll actually have to start to market these guys. That’s when it’ll get interesting!

The real cipher here is the Volt. As I said below, the Prius is a known quantity and, as John points out, perhaps the potential weakness of the Prius PHEV is that it is a Prius and not a brand new, designed from the ground up PHEV. Over the last couple years I’ve said the same thing here several times. While I love the Prius and can’t wait to see the Prius PHEV, I would prefer to see a brand new, designed to be nothing but a PHEV vehicle from Toyota. I think a PHEV should be smaller and lighter than the Prius (more range, better performance). I question whether or not the Prius is the ideal platform for a PHEV given where battery development is right now. All that is moot because this year Prius PHEV testing will begin.

Back to what John said…

I don’t know what the public perceptions of the PHEVs will be. None of us do (as John points out). It will be interesting to see if the Prius’ hybrid PHEV suffers in competition to the Chevy’s take on the PHEV concept. One thing both cars seem to insist on is that gas powered motors augment a pure EV concept for extended range.

I still think that two huge things give Toyota a leg up on producing a real PHEV. One, is using an existing, proven platform. For whatever drawbacks there are to using the Prius platform, there are also huge advantages and, let’s face it, Chevy’s been blowing smoke about the Volt for what, three years now? It’s still a mostly mythical car whereas the Prius is very real. Toyota has established itself in this altcars genre and I think that for every person who wants to buy a bowtie because it is a bowtie, there are just as many people who want the implied reliability and sound engineering that goes with the Toyota name.

John Voelcker wrote:

SO, my question might better be: Will plug-in buyers expect continuous electric running for the stated range (12 or 40 miles)? If they do, I suspect the Prius Plug-In may have a perceptual problem, because it may well not run all-electric for 12 continuous miles. If not, no problem.

My take on it is this, I don’t think consumers are going to care, too much, about how the ICE interacts in either vehicle. What will drive consumer reaction to the Prius PHEV and the Chevy Volt are the basics, MPG, ease of use, comfort, price, reliability. I don’t think that consumers will care overmuch about when the ICE starts and stops as long as it delivers on the PHEV potential of using very little gasoline. I could be wrong and if so, here are my words for future embarrassment but I don’t think I’ll be bummed out by what I’ve written in a few years.

My thanks to John Voelcker for taking the time to read my original article and add his thoughts to it.

The 2010 Insight is the least expensive hybrid vehicle sold in the US, coming in at a base price of $20,400 including delivery. The EPA rates it at 40 miles per gallon city / 43 mpg highway, for a combined rating of 41 mpg.

Problem is, it’s not the base LX that got the high rating, it was the EX which sells for a bit more. So price not being a factor, if the safety between the Prius and the Insight is the same, if the Prius gets better MPG and is more comfortable, which one is the right choice?

One thing is clear to me, GM is still floundering, badly, with poor management, in whatever random direction seems to work at the moment.

This is great little piece which highlights one small problem with GM, promising more than they can deliver. At this point we don’t know exactly how the production Volt will perform. But GM is sure that talking about 230 MPG is the right thing to do.

It’s arguable that plug-ins should not be measured in MPG at all. BusinessWeek’s Ed Wallace argued the same thing here. Consumers need a touchstone, something to compare one vehicle to another but MPG on a plug-in a dangerous guide but MPG usefulness may have jumped the shark. With Nissan claiming 367MPG for it’s all electric Leaf, we see the ridiculous get downright insane. Yes, that’s right. Nissan is claiming their all electric vehicle will get 367MPG (or the equivalent of it) even though it will never use an ounce of gas. Wallace also points out that over-promised and under-delivering has been about the only thing GM has been good at it and it’s never helped them in the past and it won’t help them here.

And then, we still have far too much of the media trying to reduce issues where they shouldn’t be reducing. Here’s CNN/Money‘s latest travesty, it’s about which car makes sense, the Prius or the Volt. Funny, comparing a car that’s been out for a decade to one that doesn’t exist yet. Seems like an odd thing to do. And of course, being CNN/Money, they try, once more, to go down the “which car makes sense based on gasoline costs” which is odd for numerous reasons I’ve pointed out here again and again. CNN/Money dabbles in the typical comparing the Prius to a standard gas car half its size, to try to make the math make sense. I guess that’s why I was an art major.

Head, meet desk. Let the pounding commence.

What’s more, the work that Toyota and to a lesser extent, Honda have done in delivering reliable, long-lasting battery electric hybrids could be undone by a spectacular failure of the Volt’s (or the Leaf’s) battery pack. Batteries are still a huge question in most consumer’s minds even though the Prius has been on the road for a decade now. Add in a nationwide, media saturated, Volt flame out and we could see a backlash against any car with more parts more comlpex than fuel injection. That would be sad but it could happen.

Q: I was interested in buying a 2010 Toyota Prius, but was surprised that they didn’t put the new lithium-ion battery in it. It was rumored to get close to 70 miles per gallon, as opposed to the 50 mpg the current version gets. Is it worth waiting another year for the new battery?

—Jim Nemetz, Newton, Mass.
A: You may as well buy a 2009 Prius instead of shelling out more for a new model. Frankly, after test-driving a 2010 Prius for the past few days, I haven’t found the latest model’s fuel economy to be significantly better.

I had also heard about a lithium-ion powered Prius that delivered much better mileage coming to market soon, as well as a plug-in version able to travel longer distances on electric power alone. The good news: Toyota plans to test a plug-in Prius with a lithium battery in municipal fleets later this year. The bad news: Toyota says it has no immediate plans to sell these cars or any with lithium batteries to the public.

My response: First and foremost, don’t base important buying decisions on rumors. Second, there will always be something better coming down the pike, as it were. Waiting will almost always get something better than what you can buy right now. So how long do you really want to wait? What are you willing to pay for this upcoming (things seldom get cheaper)?

As for Welsh’s advice, buying a 2009 isn’t a bad call. There are incentives on the vehicle and it’s a great deal. That said, the 2010 is, in my opinion, worth the waiting list and worth a few extra bucks. As I said, that’s my call and it may not be true for someone else.

Toyota’s Prius is, arguably, the most successful hybrid. But it, too, looks slightly strange. You know one when you see one, and the owners all have these smug looks on their faces as if to say “I’m special. Look what I’m doing for the environment.” The fact that one-passenger Priuses can go in HOV-2 lanes doesn’t hurt either.

“Arguably”? It is. There’s really no question on this. The sales figures are pretty simple here. As Jim Rome says, “scoreboard”.

And the whole, tired South Park dig, just tired.

The Prius is good for 35-40 mpg in normal driving, but the rear seat is still compact-car size, which isn’t fun for senior citizens.

One has to wonder if Helig has ever driven or been in a Prius. The Prius isn’t a “compact” car by any rational standards and the back seat certainly isn’t small for most senior citizens, at least senior citizens under seven feet tall and 600 pounds.

But there are those of us who aren’t looking for sainthood and expecting “normal car” drivers to bow down to us as we pass. While we appreciate the virtues of hybrids, we don’t necessarily like the sacrifices we’re asked to make.

Yeah, I was thinking about this yesterday as I was driving down the road, sunroof open, relaxing in my leather seats, blasting the stereo. Wow, the sacrifices I have to make just to make a cheap grab for sainthood. Well, enough of that woolgathering. Now it’s time to practice my intimidating smug face.

In the end, I think it’s funny that the first three paragraphs of a review on the Ford Fusion are a diatribe aimed at the most popular hybrid in the world and on its owners. Good luck with that appraoch Mr. Helig. I’ll GM’s PR department has a position just waiting for you with mad skillz like that.

As part of an answer where Brown “clarified” a response from Bob Lutz on American cars not being as competitive as some Asian and European cars, Brown blurted this out at the end.

Ford’s Fusion Hybrid beats the wheels off both the Toyota Prius and Camry hybrids. Don’t believe me? Take a few comparison test drives.

In what sense “beats the pants off”? Not in sales. Not in MPG. Not in reliability. Does the Fusion go faster? Maybe Brown thinks the Fusion is nicer looking? Maybe it’s something else? Maybe.

So I wonder if Bob Lutz is going to return the favor to Mr. Brown and possibly clarify this rather vapid statement from Brown?

I don’t think so either.

I wonder why WaPo circulation continues to decline?

Rich just got his 2010 Prius a few days. I very appreciate him taking the time to share his first impressions.

Here’s Rich…

Hi Russell,

I’m still getting used to all the controls, but the car feels much more solid – a Camry like ride (my brother has a Camry Hybrid – so I’ve driven that a fair amount). He was impressed, by the way.

A few things – no touch lock on the rear (that I could find) – just the two front doors. I guess I’ll have to read the manual. No place in the ceiling to put your sun glasses – oh well, there’s the sun roof controls. The solar cooling fan works like a charm although it hasn’t been hot enough yet (we had some rain today and will have the next two days. When you open the door, it shuts off. I haven’t tried the air conditioning button yet.

My first 150 miles – 47.6 mpg. Now, if you know the SF Bay Area at all, there are lots of hills – and I drive each day from Oakland to Concord – up the hills to the tunnel – then into the next valley with ups and downs – and reverse. Pretty much up and downey travel. Tonight we went to a League of Women’s Voters dinner on Skyline Blvd in Oakland – really up – about 1000 feet (my house is about 50 ft above sea level). I think when I start travelling in the Sacramento/San Joaquin valleys we’ll notice lots of improvement.

I thought the display was a bit underbright – but I’ve adjusted – and yes, the brightness was turned all the way up. You don’t have to turn it down at night – no reflections.

I’ve had just a few strange looks from other Prius drivers – most are totally un-aware – and I’ve yet to see another 3G on the road, but then I’ve only had it three days and I got the first one from our Walnut Creek dealer (where we’ve bought all our hybrids).

My wife doesn’t want to drive it yet – she wants me to put the first scratch on it. She is going to keep our ’04 for now since she knows how to drive it well.

My company is getting new phones Friday, so I’ll do the bluetooth bit then and let you know if it really will download the phone list automatically. XM is great – wow, what a selection. You get it free for 90 days – then you have to subscribe. It’s a good marketing scheme to get you started – and I’ll bet most all will subscribe.

More later – you should have yours shortly, I would imagine. Black, huh. I was surprised how well I liked the Sandy Beach (gold) color. We’ve always had white cars (if you remember your physics – that’s the presence of ALL colors).

Cheers,
Rich

And yes, my new Prius will (hopefully) be black. Since my current one is white, I thought that was the next logical step.

By the way, if you want to buy the POG Prius, it’s for sale! Drop me a line at:

russell (at) priusownersgroup (dot) com

If you’re in the Lancaster, PA area and want to buy a great, used Prius. Here’s the rundown.

2005 Super White Prius
Grey cloth interior
41,7000 miles
iPod integration system added
Kenwood stealth subwoofer added in package tray under rear cargo area
New Bridgestone Insignia tires
Johnson films non-metallic window tint

The first person to show up with $15K in cash, gets it!

Oh boy.

And honestly, was there anything we needed less?

Sure, the guy from Raser, the company that did the conversion prattles on about how tough it is to carry a sheet of plywood in a Prius (I’ve carried half sheets in mine but oh well) but honestly, who wants a hybrid Hummer? A truly efficient pickup, maybe. An overpriced, cheaply built wanna G.I.Joe car, so appropriately emblematic of California’s failed governator, not so much.

In an economy where the $2K price difference between the two MPG leaders is being touted as significant (I don’t think it is) who is that thinks a $56K plug-in Hummer is going to be a solution? And even if we acknowledge the accomplishment and call this plug-in Hummer a solution, is it a solution in search of problem?

Hey, nice job on the Fusion. It’s a spiffy car and frankly, I think it’s great that car buyers have another good choice when considering a hybrid. I also think that competition is a good thing so “good on ya” for pushing everyone forward.

Now, with that said Ford, you’re pushing something else and it’s the stuff farmers use to fertilize fields in my neck of the woods. And here it is…

“Fusion gets the best fuel efficiency of any mid-size sedan on the road”

Actually, you’re not even close. The Prius is a mid-size car, almost identical to the Fusion and guess what? From a standpoint of MPG performance the Prius stomps the Fusion. It just does. The Fusion gets 41/36 and the Prius gets 51/48. And do I have to mention that to get a Prius to cost what the Fusion does you have to pretty much buy the top of the line model?

Hey Ford, the Fusion is a great car and it will appeal to a lot of people. Just try to dial back the hyperbole a bit, ok?

Thanks Ford.

Best of luck!

-russell

So, what we learn from this latest blather from VW are two important things:

-Making loud noises with your car is really cool, quiet car, not so cool
-Diesel is more fun than hybrid, cuz it’s faster, or something

So, what’s the other side? Well, the EPA rating for the TDi is 30/41. But wait, didn’t the cute old timey bug say something about 51 MPG? He did. It was a world record attempt by a couple of who have made quite a career out of hypermiling and there’s nothing wrong with that, just keep in mind where this “world record” comes from. They drove the TDI 9,419 miles in 20 days. There’s no mention of average speed interestingly enough though the phrase “real world driving conditions” is dropped. I’m not skeptical they achieved what they did, I am skeptical about how “real world” it is and given that vroom vroom is a selling point, methinks Volkswagen is contradicting itself more than a little bit.

All of which ignores two things about this comparison.

-The joy of owning a diesel. The noise (oh wait, that’s cool, right?) the smell and the pleasure of memorizing every diesel station in your area.

-That no matter what, that “clean diesel” was pumping out pollution every minute that car was turned on. Sitting in traffic, check. Waiting at traffic lights, check. Unlike the Prius which shuts itself down when the gas engine is not needed.

In the end, yes, I think the Prius is a better solution, environmentally than the VW. Volkswagen makes great cars and the Jetta has had quite a run, there’s no doubt about that. But the idea that the TDI is cooler because it goes vroom vroom seems a bit childish to me and that it can outperform a Prius is just silly. Sure, on the slalom course I’ll take the Jetta. For all the rest of the my driving, I’ll stick with my quiet Prius thankyouverymuch.

Games can change behavior by taking bad behaviors and making them visible, so we can no longer ignore them. For example, the onscreen dashboard in the Toyota Prius — a hybrid gas-electric car — shows drivers the gas mileage they’re achieving, based on how wastefully or how efficiently they’re driving. As many Prius owners have noted, this turns driving into a little competition, trying to achieve the highest mileage possible.

And not to descend into the completely inarticulate but, yeah, sorta.

It’s not so much making a competition of getting better MPG as it is making clear to you what impact your driving has on your MPG. In other words, when you floor it pulling away from that stoplight, the 8MPG you’re enjoying is right there, not eighteen inches from your face. You can see the direct result of your actions as they occur. So I’m not so sure it’s a game as much as it is negative reinforcement for bad driving habits. When you slow down 5MPH on the freeway, you see, immediately, the benefit in MPG. It’s biofeedback from your car. It’s part of the overall reason why the Prius is such an efficient driving machine.

Best hybrid: Prius or Insight

There’s already been a ton of these articles an no doubt there will be many more, especially in the upcoming months as the both new models are on sale here.

My problem is this, drive both cars and you’ll see the differences. Yes, the base Honda is, right now, cheaper than the base Prius. It’s also smaller, lighter and not really as well appointed. So the Prius comes to the party not only slightly larger, more comfortable but with more oomph and a better MPG, seems to me that a 10% in price is pretty negligible.

But it does give something for auto writers to write about.

The British Army just bought 50 Prii to replace some older, “standard” car in their administrative fleet.

Smart move. At no extra cost to the British Army they’re replacing older vehicles with new Priuses that get better MPG and pollute less.

You can read the whole story from carpages here.

Our good friend Wayne Gerdes, legendary hypermiler par excellance finished pushing the new Ford Fusion to 1445.7 miles on a single tank of gasoline. That’s an average of 81.5 MPG and impressive indeed.

Go check out the entire story here.

Congrats to Wayne and the team!

2010 Toyota Prius | 50 mpg (51 city, 48 highway)
2010 Honda Insight | 41 mpg (40 city, 43 highway)
2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid | 39 mpg (41 city, 36 highway)
2009 VW Jetta SportWagen TDI | 34 mpg (30 city, 41 hwy)
2009 MINI Cooper | 32 mpg (28 city, 37 highway)
2009 Ford Escape Hybrid | 32 mpg (34 city, 31 highway)
2009 Honda Fit | 31 mpg (28 city, 34 highway)
2009 BMW 335d | 27 mpg (23 city/36 highway)
2009 Toyota Highlander Hybrid | 26 mpg (27 city, 25 highway)
2009 Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid | 21 mpg (21 city, 22 hwy)

Electric cars: the shocking truth
By Andrew Thomas

Oh my, I can’t wait to see where they’re going with this.

The BBC’s Top Gear motoring show did a head to head comparison of the Prius with a BMW M3 sports sedan last year.

Oh good, so they’ve taken and example from an entertainment show and are using to make a legitimate case? Seriously? This is like forming your political views after watching an episode of South Park.

The deal was that the Toyota would blast round the show’s test track as fast as its little green wheels could carry it and the BMW gas guzzler would follow along behind.

So this “serious” involved flogging the Prius around a race track and then having the BMW follow along going slower? What exactly are we testing for? Aside from laughs I mean?

At the end of the test, the BMW returned a shocking gas mileage of just 19.4 miles per Imperial gallon. The eco-friendly Prius returned an impressive 17.2 mpg. Err, right. So if I want to save the planet, I need a fast BMW rather than a rather sad hybrid econo-box.

I can’t imagine what Andrew Thomas is like after watching Saturday morning cartoons. I hope he really doesn’t put the dig through the clothes wringer and hit people over the head with sledgehammers but given the above and rest of this idiotic article, I wouldn’t put it past him.

Thomas goes on to talk about all the dangerous rare metals in the Prius batteries while failing to mention they’re recycled but the real high point is the article is when he alludes to the much discrediting Spinella/CNW “report” on environment impact (he doesn’t cite, he just paraphrases the most popular and incorrect portions of it).

In truth, I need not have bothered mentioning this. One read through and I think most rational people might opine that perhaps Thomas had been drinking or using otherwise impaired judgment he wrote this tripe. I did learn one thing from the article however. Don’t bother with anything on TG Daily. That lesson alone was almost worth the time I wasted reading the Thomas’s article.

do I buy an expensive hybrid, which gets great gas mileage, or a modestly priced non-hybrid that gets slightly worse mileage but costs a lot less?

This kind of stupid is only available in special packets, usually prescribed by a physician.

So here’s the summary, you can read all the ugliness at the link above. The choice as laid out by Taylor and Forbes is, the $11k, 30 MPG Hyundai Accent or the $22k, 50 MPG, Toyota Prius. The case they make, even if you add in the difference in cost of fuel used, the Accent is the clear choice.

It is?

Only in the world of AIG and derivative trading does that equation make sense. Put simply, here’s why;

-Compare the size of the two vehicles, calling them the same is not really very accurate. The Prius seats four comfortably and has room left over. The Accent, not so much.
-Figuring the cost of gas as a fixed price is always a dangerous game to play. Who would bet that gas will stay at the price it is now for the next, say, five years, a reasonable time of ownership for a new vehicle?
-Fit and finish between the Accent and the Prius, do you think they’re comparable?
-Which vehicle is going to hold its value better?
-Maintenance and service, which vehicle hold up better and cost you more?

Nearly every time someone engages in this “hybrid vs. standard” game, the scenario is rigged from the start. And don’t get me wrong, I don’t think the best or only reason to buy hybrid is economic. I think that’s am excellent and very strong side benefit. I think the real main benefit is that you’re not spewing pollution non-stop every time you drive it. Living in a very dense, downtown area, I appreciate that hybrids are quieter. If I could cut the auto noise in my neighborhood in half it would be a huge improvement in my quality of life. Those are my reasons, they may not apply to anyone else and I’m not saying they should. What I am saying is that this simplistic and mostly disingenuous “financial” argument that’s regularly made is just that, simplistic and usually disingenuous. YMMV.

This article is a mild example. It’s about getting your “blood racing”. I suppose but frankly, you know what gets my blood racing? A car that I won’t have to dump buckets of my cash into merely to keep it running more than four or five years. Or a car that gets great MPG so, similar to the previous point, I can spend my money on things other than gasoline. Or a car that doesn’t belch out smoke when I’m sitting at a red light, in a drive-through line or waiting in traffic. I like the smell of real air. That gets my blood racing.

This program works if it specifically targets the right vehicles for trade-in and does so with MPG and the environment in mind and it allows the consumer to choose between (again) a specific range of vehicle to buy from. It doesn’t help all that much if the only point is to give people incentives to buy that new Camaro or Challenger no matter how much the lobbyists say otherwise.

-Comparing the Kia Rio, the Chevy Cobalt to the Toyota Prius is at best stupid, most likely disingenuous. The Corolla, no, that’s just dumb. You should have gone for the Yaris. (/head-desk)

-The great part of your article is obscured by the above need to paint the Prius as somehow not a great car. Your solid point, it’s awesome when (and “if” I would point out) someone in a large vehicle can save additional even just a few additional MPG. Those seemingly piddly few miles can make a big difference.

Smug hybrid drivers like to imply they are doing the planet some good, whereas the truth is that they are, at best, simply not causing as much damage as the rest of us. (Even this is debatable: according to one report, if you take into account the energy used in producing and disposing of vehicles, the petrol-swilling Jeep Wrangler is actually greener than the Prius). And while SUV owners risk having their cars vandalised by environmentalists, the reality is that some SUVs are less polluting than supposedly greener small cars (The Mini Cooper S, for instance, does around 33mpg on the combined cycle of city and open road driving, while the BMW X3 2.0d will give you around 39mpg).

All the cliches of the lazy writer. Passing on the debunked CNW survey (without naming it, either lazy or disingenuous). Using “smug” as the first word in the paragraph. It’s all the same, usual, rationalizing crap rolled into one nice, neat paragraph. Go ahead, drive the Land Rover, those hybrids are nasty anyway.