Why don't we have a Hybrid Car that gets 100MPG+ today in 2010?

Mark

I have to wonder. WHY don't we have a car right now in 2010 that gets 100+ mpg?































Ok we have the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius that get 50MPG+ WELL why not DOUBLE or TRIPLE or QUADRUPLE the Batteries and get 100MPG???































Seriously... WHY NOT PACK Enough Lithium Ion batteries in there to get 300MPG??































You mean to tell me that with all the technology we have today in 2010 that we can't come up with a Hybrid that gets 100MPG??? PURE Nonsense...































Someone somewhere is keeping the 100MPG car from being produced. Simple as that.































You mean to tell me that you can't pack enough Lithium Ion batteries into a CAR to get 100MPG??? Yea right. You know it could be done.































BIG OIL and other political forces DON'T WANT the 100MPG car.































Why did gas prices go to $4.50 per gallon??? TO get the $$$ While the Getting was good. Now the gig is up and they know it.















Ok a Lithium Ion battery weighs what?? 1oz tops?? How could the weight of a lithium ion batter be a factor a 1oz or less?















Lithium Ion batteries are safe, weight next to nothing. EVEN if they weighed 1lb (impossible) but for the sake of this argument even at 1lb you could fit 100lbs of lithium ionic batteries and you would still EASILY get 100+MPG out of a small 2-3 cylinder car that has a gas engine working with a HYBRID electric engine.... Any argument against this is nonsense. You KNOW it could EASILY be build.































Nissan has the PURE ELECTRIC car with 100mile range?? why not pack enough batteries to go 300 miles??? How much could the batteries weigh??































WHY NOT SIMPLY MAKE A 100MPG CAR???































Because it would never sell?? Yea, that must be it.

The Naked Troll

It is not about the number of batteries, it is about their capacity and weight. More batteries equals more weight which in turn equals higher fuel consumption. A small diesel engined car will get comparable (sometimes better) mileage than most hybrids. Citroen showed a car they called the 'cactus' at the Paris and Frankfurt motorshows over recent years which was a diesel hybrid rather than petrol, that had mileage of over 100mpg. Diesel is better suited because they generally have more torque and can pull the batteries more easily. The best innovation of recent times though (using fossil fuels) is the one where the car is electric and powered by batteries but the batteries are charged by a small diesel generator. This is more efficient as the engine can run consistently on its efficiency sweet spot rather than run the usual rev range as it speeds up and slows down and only requires a small engine to run the alternator. Jaguar are looking into it at the moment for a new series of XJ's. The batteries are small so they are still light and the electric engines are really efficient and still powerful enough to be sporty.































No-one is preventing these cars from being produced, but what you must understand is that there is a development period of 15 years on car technology. Things only come into real world usage after they have been developed for a VERY long time. Don't get me wrong, some things are rushed through but most developments don't. This is a financial burden, the car companies have an interest in selling cars and do not have a relationship with the oil companies in the way you seem to suspect. They sell cars and any advantage will be used, including offering low gas milage.































EDIT: A 1oz Li-Ion battery will do literally nothing in terms of propelling a vehicle. You are thinking about mobile phone batteries or something like it. They are the same technology but considerably smaller than those needed to move a Prius. A Prius battery pack weighs 68kgs or about 150lbs. Much more than an ounce.































EDIT: Mitsubishi has the i-miev which does much more than 100 miles. But I am done trying to explain this to you. Clearly you have a massively uninformed opinion and will stick to your guns no matter what, so sure, it's all a big conspiracy, the world is plotting against you and you have all the answers. Your basic knowledge is poor and yet you are making claims based on guesswork that doesn't really work out. Do the math. If you could work it out then so could everyone else and the car companies wouldn't get away with it because of competition in the free market and public outrage. Learn the subject, understand the issues, then comment. I can't even call it armchair science, its just uninformed guesswork based on massively incorrect facts. Batteries weighing an ounce to move a car indeed.

rick29148

Lithium ion batteries are a good source of energy storage, but they have some very serious drawbacks: If they are shorted they can go into melt-down and start a fire, and that's the small ones the size of a quarter. Think what could happen after a car wreck - You could start a block leveling fire. There will have to be a better battery design before the electric car becomes viable.

The Great Brandini

You are very ignorant to the fact that this is very hard and expensive. First of all, batteries used in hybrid cars are much more than 1 oz in weight. These aren't the size of batteries found in childrens toys. These are huge batteries. Also, you can't just keep adding batteries to increase mileage. It just doesn't work that way. Gas engines are always at work in hybrids above a certain speed, so there really is no way for a hybrid to get 100 mpg. You are probably thinking of an E-REV, or extended range electric vehicle. These are vehicles that can go a certain range at any speed under battery power alone, and when they get low, a gas engine kicks in, not to power the car, but only to recharge the batteries. Chrysler actually developed a few of these. The 200, Town and Country, a new Dodge sports car, and the jeep patriot were all part of the program called ENVI that was devoted to developing these types of cars. When they were bought by Fiat, the new management decided funding was not sufficient for this program and it was disbanded and integrated into regular gas engine car design. This slowed down development. One E-REV was supposed to be released by Chrysler this year, actually, but since ENVI ceased to exist, this did not happen. Instead we got the Chevy Volt, which basically uses the same ideas. There is technology available today to develop highly efficient cars, but the real problem is that it is so expensive to build hybrids. Batteries are expensive, and adding more batteries adds more price. No one wants to pay $50,000 + for a compact car, even if it does get 100 mpg. It simply is not economical. So until this technology becomes more economical to develop, use, and produce, don't expect to see too many 100mpg cars for sale. I'm sure you were being sarcastic with this comment, but the price tag on these cars really would cause them to not sell. People would much rather buy a 19,000 dollar car and pay for gas than buy a 50,000 dollar car. Most people simply don't have the money to pay such a high price.































And you're right about big oil not wanting these cars. The companies are so greedy for money that I'm sure they try to coax automakers into delaying release of highly fuel efficient technology with money, which some automakers are lacking right now. I think this explains your question well. If not, email me.

Two Lane. 455 Rocket.

There's some plug in electric car's coming out like the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt that can go 50 miles on a single charge at speeds up to 70 mph. My work commute is 24 miles round trip. In theory, I could drive one to work everyday and never use any gas as long as I remember to plug it in every other night. Actually, the Leaf has no gas engine at all. The Chevy Volt does have a gas engine.































edit: COME ON, don't you think Nissan would give there car a 300 mile range if possible!?!? Why in the ehll do I have 2 thumbs down?!































edit: Here ya go. 110 mpg Mustang. http://www.streetfire.net/video/100-...car_169809.htm















Same engine in a Verda super car. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dKlO...eature=related

Michael

Larger battery packs do not improve the fuel efficiency of a hybrid. The batteries are used as the electrical equivalent of springs.































There are some important limitations on the number of miles per gallon any car can get in the real world. Climate control is a critical one - when energy has to go into keeping the passengers warm in the winter and cool in the summer it can't go into moving the car forward.

Why do You care

If it's so easy. Why aren't you doing it?































Why aren't you packing 5,000 pounds of Batteries into a Car and becoming a billionare?































I mean if it's really that simple just get up and do it.































Hell I'm sure you've got tons of practically weightless Lithium Ion Batteries laying around your house just waiting to be put into a car right?

JerryJ

Ok we have the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius that get 50MPG+ WELL why not DOUBLE or TRIPLE or QUADRUPLE the Batteries and get 100MPG???































Because the batteries aren't what gives the Prius it's high mpg. The Prius gets its high mpg because the engine is sized for steady state driving rather than acceleration. This allows the engine to run in the most efficient rpm range most of the time. The electrical components are there to provide the additional power needed for acceleration and to allow electric running for short periods during very low power demand when the engine would run outside of the efficient band.































People have put in additional batteries in the Prius and mostly they received less mpg.































Note that Plug-in cars don't improve mpg, they just transfer the cost of gas to the cost of electricity. This may or may not improve overall economy depending upon driving conditions, trip length, and electric rates.































In 2011 there will be a smaller version of the Prius. This should be capable of 100 mpg as I've been able to get 70 mpg over a fill (about 600 miles) in the 2004 Prius on occasion, though between 60 and 69 is more common.































FWIW, the Prius was developed in four years (1992 to 1996 when the 1997 model started shipping)

Brian

Because to some people, like myself horsepower is more important that MPG.