High Gas prices=OPPORTUNITY

[Colonel Ingus Profile]

I addressed that start up energy question earlier. How much energy, and monetary, investment does it take to get that oil from hole to refinery to you? There is no free energy. You are always going to have a cost associated with producing your fuel.

Two reasons IC won't be going away. Infrastructure is so solidly stuck in place that it isn't cost effective to do anything else. And wether we like it or not Oil companies make a crap load of money and are therefore resistant to change.

Oh yeah, Check out this pipe dream. Seems even the industry believes exactly what you are saying.... Oh wait.

http://www.local2209.org/default32.asp

Dude you can be an ICE nut all you want but facts are facts and the only pipe involved here is the one yer smokin:D

And I didn't even bump my head!

[RCinator]

Originally posted by Major SONAR
I'm not necessarily in favor of big cars/SUVs (own a Saturn myself) but it is a proven fact that in bigger cars, people are more likely to survive an accident.


:wall:

Yeah that's always been a favorite of mine. People always seem to forget the second half of that statement - you're also more likely to kill the guy in the car. SUV drivers piss me off. There's no excuse for them where I live:

From http://www.safecarguide.com/exp/statistics/statistics.htm, based on NHTSA data:

"Problems With Trucks & SUVs - Representing the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, consumer activist Joan Claybrook presented the following information to the House of Representatives in 1996 and 1997: "Each year nearly 5,000 Americans die in truck crashes. According to the IIHS, in 1995, 98 percent of the people killed in two-vehicle crashes involving passenger cars and big trucks were occupants of the passenger vehicles. Since 1992, there have been more fatalities in collisions involving SUVs and cars than in car-to- car crashes, largely as a result of the disparity in vehicle weight (mass), height, and front-end aggressivity between SUVs and passenger cars. Of those persons fatally injured in SUV-car collisions, the vast majority, eighty per cent, were car occupants (see NHTSA report, 'Relationships Between Vehicle Size and Fatality Risk')."

Four-wheel-drive pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) are designed to be driven for work, hauling, and off-road purposes. They were not designed to be people movers, and don't handle nearly as well as passenger cars or minivans. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that SUVs are four times more likely to roll over than passenger cars in high-speed maneuvers. In addition, some smaller top-heavy SUVs have rolled over in NHTSA side impact collision testing. SUV-to-car collisions are six times more likely to kill the occupants of the smaller vehicle when compared to a normal car-to-car collision. You may be safer inside an SUV, but you're at greater risk of killing others in the event of an accident."

That's freaking wonderful. Think about that the next time you step into an SUV.

[Camel toe joe Profile WebsiteYIM]

Price by me is around 42 cents a liter reg, and 52 cents a liter premium

[RCglider Profile]

Originally posted by Colonel Ingus
I addressed that start up energy question earlier. How much energy, and monetary, investment does it take to get that oil from hole to refinery to you? There is no free energy. You are always going to have a cost associated with producing your fuel.

Two reasons IC won't be going away. Infrastructure is so solidly stuck in place that it isn't cost effective to do anything else. And wether we like it or not Oil companies make a crap load of money and are therefore resistant to change.

Oh yeah, Check out this pipe dream. Seems even the industry believes exactly what you are saying.... Oh wait.

http://www.local2209.org/default32.asp

Dude you can be an ICE nut all you want but facts are facts and the only pipe involved here is the one yer smokin:D

And I didn't even bump my head!

I'm not a ICE nut, just live in the real world. That Ox2 engine has a better chance of making it to market in the next 5 years than FC do. Did you even bother reading the links I posted?

On the fluff article:

1. the batteries and fuel cell add over
1 ton to the weight of the vehicle!

2. notice the fuel used.....gasoline.

3. It's puke slow and sorely underpowered.

4. Lots of if's.

I see this sort of stuff everyday at work. It's our business. All I can tell you is currently fuel cells are a novelty and good discusstion topic. Many groups, businesses, universities and other interested parties are jockeying for grant money, so a positive picture is always the norm. I hope the technology will take huge leaps, but even if it does, the cost to design, test, retool etc. is tremendous. Before all that, the problems as mentioned in that blurb must be addressed before the $1+ billion is considered to spend. That takes time.

Fuel cells time will come, but not as soon as some think it should or will. Sorry, that is just the reality of it. Ford and GM just invested several $$$ million into their 6 speed auto transmission program for ICE vehicles, adding $2-3k optional to the sticker....for 10% mpg increase . At the same time they are tooling up for their CVT programs (GM does in Hungary now). Ford will be marketing the 6 speed later this year. GM will be next year more than likely.

Hybrids will get more popular if the prices drop and performance increases, but people aren't flocking to showrooms to get them because they aren't worth the extra expense and haven't proven their reliability yet.


Watch for diesels making headway.