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If you use EOC P&G, technically speaking your car is a hybrid. You have stored energy in your cars inertia and use it to move the vehicle without consuming any fuel during the coast phase of operation.
You do use fuel to increase your speed, but when done properly the energy conversion is much more efficient due to operation at best BSFC.
I think much is lost in focusing on the method of hybridization, while the results should be the principle objective.
Increased complexity and cost to accomplish the same thing a good hypermiler can do with a conventional vehicle is a way the manufacturers make the transition to more efficient vehicles difficult.
It's a shame that more focus is not directed towards accomplishing the benefits of a "hybrid' vehicle without increasing the cost and complexity. How about doing it with lower cost and less complexity. I believe it is definitely possible, although is seems few share that belief.
Also people tend to think there is one and only one best method of "hybridization" of vehicles.
While we may at some point in the future develop a battery that solves all the problems that exist today, no one knows what configuration will eventually succeed, or how long it will be before that point is reached. The answer is we do not know when an electric car will have the range to replace our current vehicles.
Power conversion total energy density still favors the use of some form of IC engine.
That may change, but the application and recovery of power to the wheels is something that could change virtually overnight.
We know how to do it. The question is really how do we get everyone to do it, by changing the way cars operate so it is done automatically.
That brings on a whole new set of problems. What happens to the existing fleet of vehicles when the new super mileage vehicle becomes a reality? Do you think the manufacturers would want to make their existing inventory as well as the used car market as a whole obsolete overnight. Consider all of the jobs that would be lost in industries that presently depend on the status quo for survival.
Imagine the day when we find out that every vehicle on the planet has become obsolete overnight, the economic cost of that transition would be devastating, not only to car owners but to those who depend on their consumption of numerous commodities related to car operation.
GM used the Volt to sell the govt a bill of goods GM knew it did not have. The lack of critical information reminds me of the person who short changes you and tells you it is an innocent error.
If it was, why is it you are always short changed. If it was an innocent mistake, would it not randomly benefit you at a rate of close to 50% of the time.
The disingenuity that has become the norm in this society makes me glad to know that as I reach the age of 60, I will not have to deal with it for to many more decades. The cynicism is especially cruel when someone who honestly wants to help can not wade through the fear of the cynical that they are just playing them for a fool one more time.
regards
Mech
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