I've no idea what to make of this, but one of the 'shedlets & I sneaked out this morning and drooled over a 'burb.
Got home and started snooping around and came up with this:
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(for the link shy or bandwidth limited, it's a plug-in hybrid Suburban with a CVT and an on-board 1.9 L Saturn motor for recharging. Supposedly outperforms the existing 5.3L gas engine and returns 30mpg).
It remains to be seen what can be developed along these lines, but doggone cool idea.
Nothing personal agains saving cost of fuel. But lets think about it. If we get better milage on our tow vehicles do you think for moment the US goverment and the oil co. will drop the price of fuel. Dream on.The price of fuel will go up. It take just as much money to produce fuel no mather how much is used. I will give you an example in Tucson Az Tucson Water Co. asked everyone to coserve water and we saved 10% so they raise our rate by the same amount. Do you think that for minute if we use more they will reduce the rate. Good luck. Same thing goes for the power com.
The best way is to stop all formulations of different fuels for different states and this way we can expect reduce price and second is to start drilling for our own oil. We have enought oil in Alaska, Montana, North Dacota to run our economy for the next 100 years
Regards From Russell in sunny and warm Tucson Az.
I think that is so cool! Wonder if he'd convert my Dodge van (seats 12, tows great, ugh... 7 - 8 mpg towing!). Would the batteries last towing? Too bad he didn't mention cost. I'm sure the one off costs are astronomical!
Wonder why Chevy didn't just buy his technology (looks like he's sponsered by Delphi) and use that instead of their "hybrid" technology? One UCD professor seems to have outperformed GM's best. A diesel hybrid might have even better results.
"What happens in a hundred years"?. We are finding more oil all the time. In 1935, they said we had thirty years left, in 1955, they said we had twenty-five years left, in 1970, they said we had twenty years left. The world is awash in oil, it's almost everywhere we look, and they keep finding more. With developing technologies, there will be plenty of oil far into even the unforseeable future. The eviornmentalist movement in the country has succeeded in virtualing stopping any building of any new refining ability, or any drilling, or further development of atomic power. Face it friends, there are powerfull people who's ambition and goal is to reduce the U.S. to the status of the rest of the world. Those who worship the earth do not a want a country in which large numbers of people can be mobile, and enjoy the life-style such as ours. It also dosen't help that the American dollor is fast losing it's buying power in the world marketplace.
i use the same amount of gas as i did 10 years ago.planning ahead my route concious of how to be most efficient with the cost of traveling.when this new technology comes to market that is great,until then i will survive using common sense....as borring as it may be.back in the 70's there was a gas shortage,and a beef shortage both of which i was supporting before the (shortage) ever began.life is simple.it is people who make it difficult.don't buy into the bullsh**.
I think that is so cool! Wonder if he'd convert my Dodge van (seats 12, tows great, ugh... 7 - 8 mpg towing!). Would the batteries last towing? Too bad he didn't mention cost. I'm sure the one off costs are astronomical!
Wonder why Chevy didn't just buy his technology (looks like he's sponsered by Delphi) and use that instead of their "hybrid" technology? One UCD professor seems to have outperformed GM's best. A diesel hybrid might have even better results.
Marc
I would think a smaller turbo diesel would do a much better job with huge increases in economy. It should run at a steady state like a generator if I understand the concept. Very interesting and the truck chassis works great to handle the weight of the batteries. Now put a solar cell on the roof of the house, plug that baby in, and this should send real worries to the middle east.
In December of 2000 we attended our second WBCCI Rally, in Woodland, CA. One of the highlights was a tour of UC Davis Engineering. They were working on two hybrid gas/electrics. One was a sedan, the other was a Suburban.
Hybrids and conservation are fine, but drilling for our own, not exporting or importing a drop, and letting the rest of the world drink theirs seems to me to be the way to go.
The way I see it, we can make electricity. Solar, nuclear, wind, geothermal, even wave technology allows for electricity generation. You and I can make watts and amps, we can not make oil and its by products. So, anything we consume in that manner is the future. For my kids and future generations, our addiction to oil is thinking in the past. It is a filthy and ancient form of energy. Just look what computers did for that suburban to allow leaps in performance in just the past few years. We can choose to move ahead or stay in the rut of polluting fossil fuels. The choice however will be out of market conditions, not any of our so called leader in Washington. They are owned by the oil companies. One of the reasons I bought an Airstream and not a high end motorhome is so that aging drive trains are history. New technology is going to drag these puppies around the country. Our current 2008 truck just towed 15k miles and 75% of that was on e85. Perfect, no, but at least most of the bucks went to american farmers. When the lease is up I will be looking to see what new form of beast is on the market. The more electric the power train, the better.
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