Quote:
Originally Posted by rob.e
Yep, but for me i think it won't add much. Most of my commute is highway speeds, 110-120 miles a day for my commute. The diesel does a great job at these sorts of speeds and whilst i'd love to have the additional performance on tap, and i although i'd save if i could use electric for the low speed stuff like a prius yes it would help but not enough to justify the spend.
If i manage 70mpg now, and the orbis bumped me up to say 80mpg, then my basic calc looks like it would save me about £1 per trip, so i'd need 10,000 trips to break even.. so ~50 years 
Even if my maths is wrong and the saving is double that ^ it'd still take 25 yrs to break even, by which time the car would have over half a million miles. |
I would say the mpg increase would be closer to 50-75% depending on the vehicle. These wheels add 100 hp, which is very significant when you consider that most engines make around 160-180 hp at the crank. That would end up being like 125 or so hp to the wheels. Your engine would have to work half as hard to maintain 60 mph. What if your mpg increased to say 110 mpg? Then would it be worth it?
The way I look at it is that it will cost only 10k to convert your car to a hybrid. New hybrids are much more than that.
This is very cool, and worth it to me if it is reliable and not overly cumbersome to rotate tires and things. A difference is that I am looking into doing this to an older vehicle that I will acquire instead of a new one.