"The Volt" May BE SCRAPPED!- NEVER BUILT!!

[theunchosen]

The US market doesn't have any real competitors for lightweight. Lotus is the only manufacturer that focuses on this as a design philosophy(that sells in the US, TVR, Ariel, Caparo, Tramontana and a handful of others handle overseas markets).

A base model Civic weighs in around 32-3500 lbs and gets 30 odd mpg. Cut that in half and then cut the engine displacement in half. Might not double the FE, but its going to be alot closer to 60 mpg than not.

But it won't happen. The only individuals who are willing to get into a car that has poor crash test ratings are the ones who want a car that goes very fast. the average person would not buy a car if the competitor came out and said their opponent got 2/5 stars instead of 5/5....

[Christ]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

Hi,

Here's the Mini hybrid with four 160HP electric motors, that I mentioned:


(click on image for link)

The ICE charger weighs 1/10 as much as the original 4-cylinder engine. There is no transmission or drive train, and no conventional brakes. If the hub motors were ~40HP each, they would weigh even less and they would use less power, and so the mileage would likely be higher.

Don't forget that diesel/electric train locomotives are serial hybrids! The latest freight train claim is they can move a ton over 400 miles on a single gallon of diesel.

That's a PML design, that will (sadly) probably never see market. Mini had nothing to do with the development of that car, in all honesty, other than producing the chassis.

I would love to have one, though, or even a Ford Aspire with a similar design. That would just be the bee's knees, would it not?

[Christ]

Originally Posted by theunchosen

The US market doesn't have any real competitors for lightweight. Lotus is the only manufacturer that focuses on this as a design philosophy(that sells in the US, TVR, Ariel, Caparo, Tramontana and a handful of others handle overseas markets).

A base model Civic weighs in around 32-3500 lbs and gets 30 odd mpg. Cut that in half and then cut the engine displacement in half. Might not double the FE, but its going to be alot closer to 60 mpg than not.

But it won't happen. The only individuals who are willing to get into a car that has poor crash test ratings are the ones who want a car that goes very fast. the average person would not buy a car if the competitor came out and said their opponent got 2/5 stars instead of 5/5....

Oh, and don't forget me. Crash test ratings mean nothing to me, honestly.

I remember the 4th gen Civics... Light was a design feature. In fact, Honda in general in days of yore, light was a design feature.

There is a story about Soichiro Honda from back when the company first started:

As the lead engineer and founder of Honda, Soichiro believed that weight and performance went hand in hand. Excess weight meant lack of efficiency, and that meant higher prices in all aspects, both for the company and for the consumer. Some felt he was going too far when he would troll the assembly lines, measuring and triple-checking the assembled product. When he found a bolt that was a few threads too long, he would remove it, document it, file those threads off, document that, then require that all new orders of the aforementioned bolt were ordered to the new specified length, and all blueprints of the bolt be updated to show the refined specification.

[dcb]

on a side note, I don't know if I've ever seen such a congregation of misconceptions before in my life

Gets my vote for confused thread of the month

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by Jammer

It appears, to me, that if things continue on today's path, that we could have a market of a lot of fairly inexpensive lightweight small gas powered engine cars that get CLOSE to the mileage of some much more expensive hybrids. In the end the market will have to shake things up.

Street legal bumper cars FTW!!!

[Christ]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Street legal bumper cars FTW!!!

Holy crap! I love them!

[Frank Lee]

750cc motorcycle engines. I'd want mine about 6" lower. Regardless...

I WANT I WANT I WANT!!!

[Christ]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

750cc motorcycle engines. I'd want mine about 6" lower. Regardless...

I WANT I WANT I WANT!!!

LOL... I dunno that I'd want a 750, even. On something that small, I could deal with prolly a 500 or so.

My shaft-drive rear end design that I'm working on uses (ideally) a 750, but it has a trunk between the two front wheels and probably will end up weighing in at or near 2000 lb.

Realistically, it will use whatever drive train I can get ahold of from whatever bike it happens to come from.

[NeilBlanchard]

Hi,

Here's an upcoming serial hybrid from Suzuki:

Tokyo 2009: Suzuki Swift plug-in hybrid — Autoblog Green

Suzuki Motor Corporation all set to dominate global automobile market

[tjts1]

Originally Posted by theunchosen

The US market doesn't have any real competitors for lightweight. Lotus is the only manufacturer that focuses on this as a design philosophy(that sells in the US, TVR, Ariel, Caparo, Tramontana and a handful of others handle overseas markets).

A base model Civic weighs in around 32-3500 lbs and gets 30 odd mpg.

I don't know what you're talking about.

2009 Civic DX 2588 lbs
2009 Versa 2516 lbs
2009 Yaris 2340 lbs
2009 Fit 2489 lbs
2009 Smart 1808 lbs
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