Hmm, i love the hybrid vehicle equation:

Burn gas in engine to create rotaional power to rotate a generator to charge a battery to power a motor to create rotational power to move the car.

Or the plug in electric vehicle equation:

Burn coal in power plant to heat water to turn turbine that also rotoates a generator to produce electricty to eventually charge a battery to power a motor to create rotational power to move the car.


Vs regular "boring" gas engine vehicle equation:

Burn gas in engine to create rotaional power to move the car.

Simple is better.

Until we have local nuclear powerplants or individual high outpout solar production a plug in electric is just a joke. They do need to develop the tech, so we do need more plug in electrics. Hybrids are a marketing scheme, for the people who think green is something other than a color. The cost and complexity of a hybrid limits it to being a lease vehicle, and the pollution they create during their cradle to the grave is greater than other options.

Disagree Linc - The effective MPG and efficiency is much higher with the generator or even coal burning.

Sorry Linc i disagree a well. I wait with total anticipation and excitement for the electric car to become mainstream. It will be the next evoloutionary step for the automotive industry. It will be bigger than what brushless was for RC. And more and more industries are doing it. Here is a link to 63 m3 Diesel hydraulic excavator that weighs in excess of 1000Tonnes that uses hybrid technology to reduce the cost of material per tonne.

The future sure is exciting!!!

http://www.cat.com/cda/layout?m=676515&x=7

http://xml.catmms.com/servlet/ImageS...mageId=C806042

We do not need anymore nuclear power plants in this world. Have Chernobyl and Fukushima not been enough of an eye opener?

No one mention nuclear power plants, and the amount of research and development going into alternative methods of generating power mean that in the near future nuclear and coal burning will be a thing of the past.

There is a depressing amount of technology that is simply kept out of the people's hands... almost 6000 patents in the US alone, on advanced energy production, transformation, and storage have been labeled and protected as "classified", all in the name of 'common interests" of the power elite.

We need clean energy, and windmills are not that. Solar is ok, but needs development. Flaps in the ocean??? Who comes up with this crap, anyone heard of rust?

Nuclear works, as long as it is monitored correctly, and the current envogue hiring policies that are forced by the gov't cannot be employed in a nuclear power plant. See NASA if you want to see beauracraps making something fail. There are 40yr old plants making 16% of americas power. We should be 100% powered by nuclear, and stop burning stuff to make electricity. Burning stuff is bad, for all of us.

Hybrids are not cost effective. Plug ins are a much better idea, save for driving across country. Battery tech needs to improve, I think we can all agree on that.

But charging your car battery by burning coal 5000 miles away and then transmitting that power with huge losses is just dumb. Charging your car battery via a solar panel mounted to your house is much better, no burning stuff (just as long as the factory that made the solar panel was powered by something other than a coal fired power plant.)

We need local power production to combat losses via transmission, and solar to augment that power. Will we ever get there, I do not think so.

If you want to be green (I hate that term, btw) move closer to work, or work from home. Limit your driving as much as possible, or walk/ride a bike. Turn everything off in your house when you leave, etc. Leasing a hybrid is not being green.