Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:13:41 -0500
Reply-To: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Subject: Re: 500 miles per gallon
In-Reply-To: <471117.86521.qm@web30905.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
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I have thought about this a lot, but all this new "green" development,
energy efficiency development, alternative fuel development, 500 mile
per gallon car development is all going to happen mostly beyond my
lifetime. I'm near 70, and if I make it another ten years it will be
because God has given me the power. To understand that you have to
understand my life - filled with car crashes, airplane crashes, sinking
boats, over turned whitewater canoes, being struck by lightening, and
the latest incident a heart attack-like incident that scared the heck
out of everybody. But if I'm granted the power, I will not be out there
in a brand new anything, nothing energy efficient, solar power driven,
alternative fuel driven. it's just not going to happen. I'm going to be
chugging along in my 88 GL with my stock motor most likely - though it
would please me to upgrade to a Soobie Ingine. They are a bit more
energy efficient. But, really, I don't think for a lot of us all this
hulabaloo is going to make much difference. It's the young folks that
are going to have to make this thing work. Folks like me are running out
of time, and we aren't going to do much.more that just keep on keeping
on. until time is up. It is really something for many of us to think about.
John Rodgers
88 GL Driver
Joel Sell wrote:
> Oh come on. 1 million electric or plug in hybrids are not going to appear overnight. It's just a STEP in the direction of stopping our dependence on oil. That's all. Look at history where anyone tried to take a new direction- the horseless carriage was a laughingstock at first and only for the rich. What kind of list is this- a "people's car" list, right? Look how far the automobile has come. It just takes time. Look at the Wright brothers- airplanes now have similar characteristics as the 1st ones, but look how far they have come. New technology is always "clunky" and awkward, but with time and use, it can become great.
> The electric car is not a panacea. Anyone who tells you it is is wrong. It's just one small step in figuring out alternative forms of transportation for our future.
>
> --- On Mon, 6/16/08, Jake de Villiers <crescentbeachguitar@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
> From: Jake de Villiers <crescentbeachguitar@GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: 500 miles per gallon
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Date: Monday, June 16, 2008, 6:36 PM
>
> And what do you think the price of electricity is going to do when you plug
> a million cars into the grid overnight?!
>
> On Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 10:35 AM, Allan Streib <streib@cs.indiana.edu>
> wrote:
>
> > It's disingenuous to make such a mileage claim when the reason for the
> > higher mileage is that the car is partially running on stored utility
> > power. The energy comes from somewhere -- if not from burning gasoline
> > in the motor, then from burning gas/oil/coal/uranium somewhere else.
> >
> > Allan
> >
> >
> > "Ken Wilford" <kenwilfy@COMCAST.NET> said:
> > > Probably a plug in hybrid concept. 100 mpg would be fine with me.
> At
> > > that point even at $5 per gallon you are looking at a per mile cost
> of
> > > around $0.04 per mile which puts us back to gas being cheap again.
> Not
> > > sure what the cost of plugging in your car overnight would be but
> from
> > > what I have read it is supposed to be "pennies". The new
> battery I have
> > > been whining about for the last couple of years is finally in the
> > > pipeline as well. I recently read an article about a guy at MIT (I
> > > believe) who has figured out a way to make the Li-ion batteries last
> 10
> > > times longer! It has something to do with nano-tubes of graphite but
> > > the short of it is that this could actually make the electric car
> viable
> > > and the plug in hybrid a car that could go even farther on a tank of
> > > gas. Necessity is the mother of invention as they say. I just hope
> all
> > > of this tech starts to mature before they figure out a way to drop a
> > > gallon of gas back down to $2 per gallon or it will all evaporate
> again.
> > >
> > > Ken Wilford
> > > John 3:16
> > > www.vanagain.com
> > >
> > > John Rodgers wrote:
> > > > Was watching a congressional energy hearing on C-Span Saturday
> and in
> > > > the discussion came this whopper of an announcement. -
> "Friday, Toyota
> > > > announced a new car is in design that will be capable of 500
> miles per
> > > > gallon of fuel". There was no discussion about this, it was
> just
> > > > mentioned in passing as part of the conversation on another
> issue, but
> > > > it sure caught my attention.
> > > >
> > > > John Rodgers
> > > > 88 GL Driver
> > > >
> > >
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Jake
> 1984 Vanagon GL
> 1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
> Crescent Beach, BC
> www.crescentbeachguitar.com
> http://subyjake.googlepages.com/mydixiedarlin%27
>
>
>
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