Hybrid Cars

[Doctor Drivel]

This is sad isn't it. Very sad. He does need attention.

[Doctor Drivel]

My God, isn't it terrible. Such stupid senile babble. I blame Thatcher for the likes of him.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

So it averages 60 mpg at 100 mph? Do you know what average means? Ask your nurse.

Hint. Hybrid vehicles are less economical at high speeds than conventional ones. Their real advantage is in stop start town traffic. Where you should be on a bus.

[Doctor Drivel]

** snip senility **

I wonder if he watched Ballamory this morning.

[Matt Beard]

I think this 130mpg figure comes from "charge batteries (from mains or engine), drive 130 miles, see that you have used 1 gallon of fuel, assume this means 130mpg". What you have actually done is 130 miles-per-(gallon of petrol plus whatever was used to charge the batteries). Not the same.

[Huge]

Err, no. The concept is totally flawed. All it does is move the pollution about. They're certainly no more energy efficient than a small diesel of similar performance.

[Huge]

They are legally proscribed in some States because of the carcinogenicity of the emissions.

[Huge]

The commonest "greenhouse gas".

Where does the hydrogen come from?

Hydrogen is a transport medioum, not a primary fuel.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yup. This is exactly how it fiddles the combined figure. No-one has ever got near it in practice.

[Huge]

God forbid.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Including commercial vehicles and trains, etc?

[Huge]

I never said there was any logic to it. We're talking about politicians, remember?

[Steve Firth]

Same with how they fiddle the urban and extra-urban miles in government tests. They always start the tests fully charged.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It would be a virtual one for dribble, though. He's not allowed out of the locked ward.

[Steve Firth]

YOu show yourself to be resistant to learning. The Prius has a gearbox, Toyota themselves have described it as "CVT".

[Steve Firth]

Hmm, so that's energy density as yet another subject that Drivel doesn't understand.

[Steve Firth]

Pah feeble, when driven under the same conditions as Drivel puts forward for a Prius I have managed to get a reported 99mpg for a supercharged Jaguar over a distance of 30km[1].

[1] From the St Gotthard pass to Chiasso[2]. [2] A quick glance at a map will clarify how this was achieved.

[Steve Firth]

Could you just clarify for me which switch on the DB6 dash disengages traction control?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Do they go to such detail on Dinky toys?

[Doctor Drivel]

yep

** snip senile babble **