Consumers are too stupid to make good choices

[--Pete]

Hi,

Just a couple of technical nits.

Getting 50mpg due to plugging it in at night drawing electricity does not make it green, only transfers the energy consumed to coal fired plants.

Magi's Civic hybrid has no power plug, and, AFAIK, neither do any of the others. Thus, all MPG improvements are obtained from balancing the good features and avoiding the bad of the electric motor and the gas engine. By charging a battery during low demand conditions and cutting in the motor when additional power is needed, the engine can be run in a more efficient, constant load regime.

Then consider the additional number of components on a hybrid vehicle and the energy and cost to make them, maintain them, and dispose of them.

True, but mostly moot. Most products, and autos especially so, are replaced long before they wear out. The difference in energy costs to make a conventional auto compared to those to make a hybrid are small in comparison to the energy required to build either of them. Changing the life cycle of an auto from a few years and under one hundred thousand miles to a few decades and closer to a million miles would have a much greater impact and is completely within the bounds of present possibility. However, except for the occasional Rolls or Bentley, people just don't want to be seen in older cars -- and to many 'older' means last year's model.

Now on the positive side, using regenerative braking and other conservation of energy devices does make sense, and it was prophesied to be an imminent car feature in Popular Mechanics back in the late 1960's when I was a lad. It would make sense for all vehicles to try to convert as much of the wasted heat, and momentum back into stored energy when possible.

This is exactly what hybrids do. Since there is no way to store the recovered energy so that it could be used in an internal combustion engine, and there is no way (yet) to make a practical all electric car, hybrids are the best solution available at present.

--Pete