I had a Prius it most definately saved me fuel in exactly the situation we’re talking about, slow high density traffic.

#30 “The under powered engines have to work twice as hard as normal engines.”
Actually they don’t most of the time, during acceleration they are supplemented by the electric motor which has a huge amount of torque to easily overcome inertia. At low speed with gentle acceleration they are switched off altogether so are hardly working twice as hard since the electric motor is doing the work. At steady expressway speeds the electric motor recharges off the surplus electricity, and the normal engine has to do very little since it is only maintain inertia not accelerating and is therefore easily powerful enough. In any case at 1,500cc the motor was only marginally lower than a standard europena midsize. (1,800cc.) On general highway driving the benefits were marginal, because the electric motor comes in very little, mostly when accelerating to overtake or up steep hills, however, on urban rush hours I was getting huge improvements over my previous car, otherwise similar in size & power.

#31 “Think about it: you use fuel to produce electricity”.
Actually thats the straight electric & hydrogen cars you then go on to recommend. Fuel is used to make electricity at the power stations (albeit more efficiently perhaps), electricity is used to procude the hydrogen, then you it has to be tankered everywhere just the same as gasoline, and kept under high pressure…etc…

Yes, the hybrids use surplus electricity from the alternator when the car is cruising under normal condition and most of that fuel was being used anyway, but it also uses re-regnerative energy from engine braking when slowing down, hence the fact that the real benefits are in urban driving, rather than flat speed expressway driving, since the motor boosts power and reduces fuel use when moving off, and is recharged when slowing back down to a stop.

Hybrids sure do show more efficiency in terms of petrol consumption in normal urban use, however whether overall more environmentally friendly given the engergy use in manufacturing the batteries / electric motors etc in the first place is another question.

Roll on fuel cell technology and mini nuclear fusion motors?

Link to PDF: http://tinyurl.com/2rhbqc

Huh? This is used in the US? Where?

They’ve had this system for decades in many parts of California.

Have you ever traveled in the U.S. outside the gray confines of the Bronx and northern New Jersey?

Hybrid cars are a jerk-off. They do not save fuel. The under powered engines have to work twice as hard as normal engines. What needs to happen is reforming the traffic signals and, get rid of the cross-walks. Oh, and Marmot, when you attend the town hall meeting, ask if the po po can start ticketing the fucking motor bikers who barrel down the sidewalks.

I don’t think the hybrid will be a big seller here because Koreans can’t claim that they invented the technology.

And as for the self important traffic police, the most effective thing they can do is keep the gridlock at bay during rush hour. (I actually saw them stop an express bus near city hall and take the drivers license the week after the inaguration) Keep the gloved hands off the traffic controls, you only know what you can see from your post, you don’t know that eight lanes of traffic are backed up for three kilometers because of your actions.

We must remember this is the first generation of car owners. (hence the poor driving etiquette and wild west feel of the roads) Common folk didn’t have their own cars until after the 88 Olympics and their driving mentors are the bus and taxi drivers with all the “experience”.

MARMOT, Are you taking notes for the next Seoul Town Hall?