Hybrid cars are for people that think they are doing something good. The typical hybrid car causes more environmental damage than a full gasoline car does. Until electricity can be made without burning ANY fuel it does not matter. Nuclear is where the real answer is, but the green heads get in the way.

Todd, I rarely agree with you but you're spot on here. We'll come back around to nuclear power one of these days when we start doing risk assessment as though, guess what, everything has trade-offs.

As for electric airplanes - not in our generation nor our great-great-grandchildren's. It's not a matter of the next (or nexteenth) battery breakthrough. It's physics.

Todd, I rarely agree with you but you're spot on here. We'll come back around to nuclear power one of these days when we start doing risk assessment as though, guess what, everything has trade-offs.

As for electric airplanes - not in our generation nor our great-great-grandchildren's. It's not a matter of the next (or nexteenth) battery breakthrough. It's physics.

I'm not interested in a hybrid, however the Tesla gets the equivalent of 100 mpg and is faster than a Porche or a Ferrari. The acceleration is smooth and quiet, and it has all the range I need... any farther we go by Baron. I can also charge it with my solar house. Also I don't believe the hybrids cause more environmental damage though, that's bad info.

Adam truly knows..........he's an owner

Now who down voting me without a reply????

Come on.......speak your mind..... don't hide!!!!!

Don't agree with the comments about hybrids being worse. A typical hybrid is a gasoline powered vehicle with no external charging capability. The hybrid part basically recovers braking energy and allows reuse of that energy to the next acceleration. Conventional gasoline cars dissipate that energy into heat through the brakes. Good hybrids do much more than the simple conversion I described, but it's still just managing a gasoline power plant to be more efficient with gasoline. Costs of these hybrids has come pretty much in line with conventional engines as volumes rise. Still some cost penalty but not dramatic.

Hybrids are really good for stop and go city driving. They can maintain those high mpg numbers where many conventional engine vehicles do much worse in real world driving. You can drive a Prius hard and still get well over 40 mpg in town where a similar size Conventional engine vehicle would drop to the mid 20's (my personal experience - yours may vary).

The battery in most mainstream hybrids is not that big, but I have no data on the big picture impact of producing or disposing of it. Probably not so much different from a lot of other materials in modern automobiles.

But they're not much fun to drive, so carry on with the bashing....

Actually one of the larger and most public advocates of nuclear power is a founder of either Greenpeace or the Sierra club. I forget which.

In terms of more pollution, this is determined by assumptions. It can be shown to save a lot of pollution or make some pollution. One of the largest assumptions is when do you charge the battery. If you charge the batter at peak between 2pm and 6pm this is the dirtiest electrical power. This is the primary Co2 and other pollution metrics utilized to make the assumption there is more pollution (also many papers I have seen use a line loss of 7% - 10% which is common in the rest of the world while in the USA excluding Florida and Texas we average closer to 2%).

Last point to consider, in the majority of the USA starting around 10pm through 8am the country produces to much electricity and the extra power is dumped in the ground. So charging batteries at this time of night actually saves significant pollution since it basically moves the power from day / peak consumption to a period of over production. (The reason for over production is because the stop /start times are either too long or expensive and it is cheaper to just dump the extra power).

Tim

Gasoline stores 46 MJ/kg. The latest "breakthrough" battery stores 0.80 MJ/kg. As i said, physics it's quite rude that way ([Link]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density[/Link])

This doesn't even get into the fact that batteries are not a source of energy. All those Prius/Tesla drivers giving you the superior look are DRIVING A COAL POWERED CAR.

When some friend giddily gave me the news last year that this solar plane got to Phoenix, 24+ hr after leaving SF, my first question was - what did they do, they TAXIED there??

And this is just physics, before we get to economics. Everytime I'm being served this kool aid, I point out to your one-a-minute 747 on the take-off roll at SFO. "That thing weighs 800,000 lbs+. Do you understand what it takes to make that go up in the air?"

Yeah, we will be flying piston airplanes for a long time (at least as long as we still get to fly, which is a whole question altogether).

I'm confused; should I consider a Duke, 421, MU2, or Prius?

Top Gear found otherwise, FWIW:

http://www.bbcamerica.com/top-gear/videos/thirsty-prius

Top Gear found otherwise, FWIW:

http://www.bbcamerica.com/top-gear/videos/thirsty-prius

How are you defining cabin class?

How are you defining cabin class?

Gasoline stores 46 MJ/kg. The latest "breakthrough" battery stores 0.80 MJ/kg. As i said, physics it's quite rude that way ([Link]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density[/Link])

This doesn't even get into the fact that batteries are not a source of energy. All those Prius/Tesla drivers giving you the superior look are DRIVING A COAL POWERED CAR.

When some friend giddily gave me the news last year that this solar plane got to Phoenix, 24+ hr after leaving SF, my first question was - what did they do, they TAXIED there??

And this is just physics, before we get to economics. Everytime I'm being served this kool aid, I point out to your one-a-minute 747 on the take-off roll at SFO. "That thing weighs 800,000 lbs+. Do you understand what it takes to make that go up in the air?"

Yeah, we will be flying piston airplanes for a long time (at least as long as we still get to fly, which is a whole question altogether).

Until the Tesla can go 400+ miles between charges and recharge in less than 15 minutes I will use gasoline.

How much would you like to wager that the government will tax solar panels YEARLY when they become commonplace? It will be an energy "convenience" charge.

Electric cars make no sense whatsoever. A new Chevy cruise will get 40 MPG and costs $18k. It has a 5-year/100,000 miles warranty as well.

Not everyone can charge their car at home. Sure FL, CA, TX, NM, AZ, and a few other states, but it is not happening country-wide.