[jazusamo]

Looks like Japanese auto companies have seen the light, wonder if Government Motors and Obama will follow?

[Red Badger]

Hell no, they’ll double down now that they have the market all to themselves!.........

[hoosierham]

if socialists admitted to reality they would not be socialists.

[illiac]

Captain obvious alert!

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Time for the Skeeter to double down.

[cuban leaf]

Someone posted this question here a few years ago:

Who buys a used hybrid?

[jiggyboy]

There’s still the inevitable corporate embarrassment of untold millions of Priuses needing new $10K+ battery packs a few years down the road. There will be more of those things littering the highways than beer cans at some point.

[Iron Munro]

“Because of its shortcomings — driving range, cost and recharging time — the electric vehicle is not a viable replacement for most conventional cars

A fact which every halfway knowledgeable person knew without having to invest several hundred billion dollars to experiment.

[Revolting cat!]

“Because of its shortcomings — driving range, cost and recharging time —

Not to speak of:

[the OlLine Rebel]

Not so PC in Japan. No American would give up on it or they’d be pilloried by all our fools.

[Army Air Corps]

Auto Ping.

[jazusamo]

Please bump the Freepathon or click above and donate or become a monthly donor!

[Jagman]

Explain how the vice-chairman of Nissan can be the father of Toyota’s Prius? Great reporting.

[reg45]

Follow? General Motors demonstrated a fuel cell vehicle in 1966.

[Paradox]

What idiot wrote this article and headline? Its not about the Prius or other hybrids, it about all electric cars. Also, the “grandfather of the Prius” does not work for Nissan, sheesh.

[pfflier]

Years ago our school was given a grant ($12,000 plus local business donations) to convert a conventional car to an electric (battery) powered pure electric car. We used a lead acid battery set (96V) and a 100VDC motor.

The thing was an eye opener:

On the plus side it had acceleration like a scalded cat. It also had a pretty high peak speed for dashes.

On the negative side, we added nearly 1,000 pounds to the curb weight because of the battery set.

It had a max range of about 12 miles then took 20 hours to recharge.

The 96 VDC systems were prone to failure with lots of thermal problems.

Environmentally, it was a disaster. We had to constantly dispose of the lead acid batteries IAW EPA regulations. The energy to charge the battery still derived directly from commercial power so we used fossil fuels, nuclear power and LNG generated electricity

Early on, we saw that a hybrid system or fuel cell system was going to be much more feasible, reliable and economical.

The distressing part, to me, was that we told our sponsors (DOE, DOT and EPA) of these innovations and the shortcomings of a pure battery drive and they refused to allow us to improve any technology as we learned, at risk losing the grant money.

After three years, I pulled the plug on our project. It was going nowhere in terms of technology beyond being a large equivalent to an RC car.

Seeing the way the government still throws money into the battery powered car pit, I see nothing has really changed. I'm glad the manufacturers are exercising their right to opt out of this lunacy. They have to deal with reality to stay in business.

[tomkat]

             

[ataDude]

What? A range of 35 miles is not good enough? Geez. /s

[Revolting cat!]

This (foolish) move by the Japanese screams 0pportunity with a big '0'. LOet us hope that Government Motors picks it up and runs with it to corner the vast battery operated automobile market!