Ever see one of those old guys putting down the road in an ancient and dirty moped with a broken down milk crate strapped to the front and another one on the back? But he's saving gas.
I've been in 2 Prius's. Niether owner got more than 35mpg in the city, less than my nieces stick shift saturn coup. They are a marketing ploy by Toyota to posistion themselves as the future. Fuel cells are the way, not hybrids. http://www.autodiscountgroup.com/autos.get/Toyota/Prius?gclid=COea_ruA04MCFQZFCwodXXEJ9g http://www.gizmag.com/go/5325/ http://www.gizmag.com/go/3889/ http://www.gizmag.com/go/3945/ http://www.gizmag.com/go/3153/ http://www.wired.com/news/wireservice/0,70342-0.html?tw=rss.index
I think Toyota is getting something of a bad rap here... the huge success of the Prius took them by surprise too. Once the buzz took hold, they would have been stupid not to capitalize on it from a marketing perspective. And who should really be surprised that the first generation of any technology is overhyped? It's the excitable press and public that largely does the hyping. People thought the internet was going to save the world in 1999. It didn't save it, but things have sure as heck changed dramatically, and for the better, between then and now. (As far as the internet goes.) When I look at hybrids, I see vehicles on the road that can work with existing fuel sources and gradually adopt -- evolve and improve in real time, go from 1.0 to 2.0 to 3.0 to 4.0 as they are being bought and sold by consumers. When I look at fuel cells, I see a technology that has been hyped for more than a decade---politicians have been high on fuel cells since the mid 1990s---that is yet nowhere near close to viability for full-scale engine production. And I scratch my head at how the heck we are supposed to build a nationwide hydrogen distribution network at anything less than a couple hundred billion dollars, with no clear picture as to who will pay for it. You may well be right that fuel cells win in the end... but from the vantage point of 2006 I think it's hardly an open and shut case. Hybrids appear to have the advantage from here, just based on the track record of which technology is on the road and which seems stuck in the starting gate... unless there are insurmountable technological barriers to further improvement of hybrid fuel economy, by the time we work the kinks out of fuel cells they might be unnecessary (for mass consumer production; commercial use another kettle of fish). Not to mention that a hybrid engine, rather than a fuel cell, seems a more natural choice for adapting to biodiesel down the road. Unless I'm missing something.
Cheap solar electricity is just around the corner and NiMh battery technology is getting a huge boost from nano technology. Batteries exist now that can achieve a 90% charge in 5 minutes, deliver way more total energy, and weigh 20% what the current technology does. Hybrids with external recharging supplementary capabilities will give anything else a run for the $ if people can drive them to work and recharge them during the day while working from cheap solar electricity. It is going to be a hard to beat setup.