popular logistics

Jorge Chapa, writing in Inhabitat, reports that the Hungarian prototype for the Antro Solo, production planned for 2012, gets 150 mpg, and here’s how:

• The hybrid electric/fossil fuel engine, familiar now to most of us - which captures energy while braking, thus recharging the electric batteries;
• an exceptionally light carbon composite frame;
• solar panels on the roof which can provide power for a 15 - 25 km trip (the post doesn’t specify how long that charge takes);
• The two passenger seats (it’s a three-seater) come with bicycle pedals, which can offset the car’s energy consumption;
• So if it’s dark, the battery is exhausted, you and your passengers are exhausted, what’s the last option?

Trick question: two options - a dual-fuel petrol/ethanol engine. Sound like an easy fit for a “station car,” if there’s any light at all. TRANSPORTATION TUESDAY: Antro Solo gets 150mpg at Inhabitat, in turn via AutoFiends. [singlepic=261,288,216,,right]

If this technology, and others like it, become competitive - whoever has developed it stands to make a lot of money - and contribute to a gradual drip-drip of oil company profits. (Today’s Times has a comment from a Saudi official, who articulated some anxiety that current price shock and anger might result in people remembering the current state of affairs, and reducing long-term demand for petroleum; we’ll try to post about this later - but - you read it here first - at least some of the Saudi leadership think’s we’re intelligent and adaptive. Flattery).

An outfit called CNW Market Research, which advertises “Clarity Context Vision” like Fox News uses the term “Fair and Balanced,” published a “study” claiming that the Hummer H2 has less of an environmental impact than the Prius. You can look for the 450 + page report here.

CNW asserts that the per mile cost of the Hummer H2 is $3.027 and the Prius is $3.249.

Heidi Hauenstein and Laura Schewel of the Rocky Mountain Institute analyze the data and conclude that CNW’s mathematics was flawed. You can find the their report on the web pages of EV World. They say that IF CNW’s methodology is correct, the Prius has a significantly lower impact on the environment than the Hummer. And, by the way, they question CNW’s methodology.

Dr. Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute also weighed in on the debate. (Click Here) He states “the report’s conclusions rely on faulty methods of analysis, untenable assumptions, selective use and presentation of data, and a complete lack of peer review. Even the most cursory look reveals serious bias and flaws: the average Hummer H1 is assumed to travel 379,000 miles and last for 35 years, while the average Prius is assumed to last only 109,000 miles over less than 12 years. … “Dust to Dust” has already distorted the public debate.”

So here’s what I think.

According to Edmunds, the MSRP of the 2007 Hummer H2 is $54,100. The Prius is $22,175. I assume the vehicles have a lifetime of 100,000 miles and the price of gas is $3.00 per gallon. I know that the EPA estimates for the Prius are 50, and the H2 is so big and so heavy that it is exempt from EPA milage estimates, but I use 40 mpg for the Prius - because that’s what limo drivers who use the Prius in NYC get - and 8 mpg for the Hummer. GM Hummer claims that the Hummer H3 gets 20 miles per gallon on the highway. Maybe they put a hybrid engine in it. Maybe that’s rolling downhill, outfitted for sail, with the engine off and running in neutral.

Using those assumptions, My back-of-envelope reckoning concludes that the Hummer will burn 12,500 gallons and the Prius 2,500 as they are driven those 100,000 miles. That’s a difference of 10,000 gallons of gas. At $3.00 per gallon, fuel will cost $37,500 to drive the Hummer and $7,500 to drive the Prius. That’s $30,000 bucks. And if the average price of gas is $4.00 over the life of the vehicle, it’s $40,000.

Ignoring the purchase cost, and assuming $3.00 per gallon, the fuel cost is 38 cents per mile for the Hummer, and 8 cents per mile for the Prius. Factoring the costs to purchase the vehicle, and the cost of oil changes every 3000 miles, (34 oil changes at $25 each) the costs to drive a Hummer H2 are $92,460 while the costs to drive a Prius are $30,525. This works out to 92 cents per mile for the H2 and 31 cents per mile for the Prius.

So the bottom line is I don’t care what CNW says, altho it would be nice if their arguments were logical, coherent, and based on fact. Regardless, my next new car will be an aerodynamic hybrid.

From Inhabitat:

As part of the Mayor of London’s plan for an increased reliance on energy efficient vehicles to power the city’s transport infrastructure, Transport for London, the British agency responsible for public transportation, has introduced one hybrid bus across route 141. The current hybrid bus is powered by a hybrid diesel-electric engine. Thanks to the mixture of both systems, the bus is able to cover the same distance range as a conventional diesel bus. All the hybrid buses will be marked with a leafy insignia to better communicate to the passengers that they are indeed traveling on an environmentally friendly bus. Here’s hoping that the rest of London, and other cities in the world follow this lead.

“This is a world-first for London marking our commitment to a cleaner, greener public transport network.” said Mayor Ken Livigstone.

Link to Inhadbitat post here.

Transport for London release here.

Congressman Dingell’s loyalty to the US automobile industry is laudable. However, resisting higher mileage standards does not help the industry. It doesn’t help management, it doesn’t help the workers, and it doesn’t help the stockholders. (Click Here or Here) It helps the Japanese, especially Toyota.

Ford Motor Company, for example, started losing the taxi and limosine market to Toyota long before Mayor Bloomberg’s initiative that all new taxis were to be hybrids. All around Wall Street, where the limos pick up investment bankers and hedge fund managers in cars that are driven 50,000 to 100,000 miles per year, you see old Lincolns and brand new Priuses.

Each Prius (Edmunds, Toyota, Car Talk), which gets 45 miles to the gallon, will burn 2,222 gallons as it is driven those 100,000 miles.

Each Lincoln Town Car, (Edmunds, Lincoln, Car Talk), which gets 12 mpg, will burn 8,333 gallons in that 100,000 miles.

At $3.00 per gallon, fuel for the Prius costs $6,222; fuel for the Lincoln costs $23,333. It’s economics not environmentalism. Fuel costs for the Lincoln are almost four times higher than for the Prius.

Even with a new set of batteries at $5,000, the operating costs for the Prius are less than half those of the Lincoln.

GM and Ford act like a man with a toothache who won’t go to the dentist because it will hurt. But unless he takes action the man will lose the tooth. They act like someone with pain that ‘is probably nothing’ who dies of cancer. And Congressman Dingell is saying ‘It’s ok, it’s probably nothing.’

Dingell’s loyalty is laudable. But rather than tell them what they want to hear, he should tell Detroit the hard truth - milage matters. Or to paraphrase Bill Clinton, ‘It’s fuel economy, stupid!’