![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peristaltorJust heard something from the NPR Technology Podcast, a story produced here in Seattle, dealing with a disappointment:
Well, that's a bummer. On what nefarious factor do they attribute such a stunning failure?
To which I say,
Bullshit!!!
Now, on the whole I'd say the plug-in concept is a great one. What Susan's particular brand of plug-ins lack is simple: they don't have a large enough electric component, a large enough motor and battery to power it. If they did, they wouldn't require one to take a freeway on-ramp at 45mph:
(Please note that that last sentence came not from the jerk driving 45 on the freeway, but from the reporting passenger no doubt suffering a butt hole pucker factor approaching 9. Clench all you want, buddy, but it won't even slow a forced entry from a cruising semi. Or transit bus.)
"Pressure" might not be just some "asshole" who refuses to slow down. In fact, when merging onto a freeway, the "asshole" is the one who forces others to slow when he or she doesn't yield to traffic during a freeway on-ramp merge for whatever reason, perhaps simply because he or she wants some underpowered vehicle to perform a miracle mileage goal imposed by some arbitrary figure from on high.
I love electrics in all shapes and sizes. I do not love apologists who insist others have to make room for under-performing electrics simply because the electric drivers refuse to invest in a seamless vehicle, one that keeps up with traffic and only calls attention to itself at the end of the month . . . when the driver pays the fuel bills.
The U.S. Department of Energy is testing plug-in hybrid cars across the country. Some results are in, and they're not nearly as good as expected. While federal lab tests showed the cars can get more than 150 miles per gallon, in road tests, they only averaged 51 mpg.
Well, that's a bummer. On what nefarious factor do they attribute such a stunning failure?
Proponents say the real power behind plug-in hybrids is the mind of the driver.
Just ask electric car enthusiast Susan Fahenstock. She owns the Green Car Co. Her shop converted 14 Priuses into plug-in hybrids for the federal test in the Seattle area. She is unfazed by the 51 mpg results.
"There's nothing wrong with the technology," she says. "It's the driver that has to care enough. They have to be trained, and it's very simple training on what they have."
(Emphasis mine.)
To which I say,
Now, on the whole I'd say the plug-in concept is a great one. What Susan's particular brand of plug-ins lack is simple: they don't have a large enough electric component, a large enough motor and battery to power it. If they did, they wouldn't require one to take a freeway on-ramp at 45mph:
Chris Wiley, who works for the city of Seattle, took me for a ride in one of the plug-in cars.
He merged onto the freeway at 45 mph — and stayed at that speed several seconds longer than most people probably would. It was one of those merges where you enter onto the fast lane.
"There's a lot of pressure out here on the highways to keep up," Wiley says.
And it's not always safe to resist that pressure.
(Please note that that last sentence came not from the jerk driving 45 on the freeway, but from the reporting passenger no doubt suffering a butt hole pucker factor approaching 9. Clench all you want, buddy, but it won't even slow a forced entry from a cruising semi. Or transit bus.)
"Pressure" might not be just some "asshole" who refuses to slow down. In fact, when merging onto a freeway, the "asshole" is the one who forces others to slow when he or she doesn't yield to traffic during a freeway on-ramp merge for whatever reason, perhaps simply because he or she wants some underpowered vehicle to perform a miracle mileage goal imposed by some arbitrary figure from on high.
I love electrics in all shapes and sizes. I do not love apologists who insist others have to make room for under-performing electrics simply because the electric drivers refuse to invest in a seamless vehicle, one that keeps up with traffic and only calls attention to itself at the end of the month . . . when the driver pays the fuel bills.