Again with the continued "hybrids cost consumers XXXX dollars more than their gas-powered counterparts" talk...of course the Prius is unique in that it has no gas-only counterpart.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(JackDodge @ May 4 2006, 09:29 AM) [snapback]249764[/snapback]</div>

The article also mentions that flexifuel cars could give hybrids a lot of competition - that's a dumb ass comment too considering that there is nothing stopping hybrid cars from having flexifuel engines in the near future as well.

"Their main buyers continue to be people who want to make a feel-good statement, he said."

...Detroit News

Jack (Dodge), why do you persist in reading this rag?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ghostofjk @ May 5 2006, 07:43 PM) [snapback]250530[/snapback]</div>

Hometown newspapers...nostalgic if you will

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(JackDodge @ May 6 2006, 04:21 PM) [snapback]250860[/snapback]</div>

You're a glutton for punishment. They also mention that MPG will take a dive with E85, it's funny how they never mention that. Also, when are we going to have the massive amounts of ethanol required to have anything better than E10 in sufficient quantities? It's gonna be a little while. By then, there will be flex-fuel hybrids. I would also guess that by then the cost differential between hybrid and gas-only will be smaller.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripp @ May 6 2006, 07:54 PM) [snapback]250891[/snapback]</div>

I never get tired of the following from Popular Mechanics:

"One acre of corn can produce 300 gal. of ethanol per growing season. So, in order to replace that 200 billion gal. of petroleum products (that Americans consume annually), American farmers would need to dedicate 675 million acres, or 71 percent of the nation's 938 million acres of farmland, to growing feedstock. Clearly, ethanol alone won't kick our fossil fuel dependence--unless we want to replace our oil imports with food imports."

They also mention that you can't take full advantage of ethanol unless you switch over completely to ethanol, meaning that you'd have to sacrifice the ability to use gasoline. It sounds as if converting a Prius to E-85 would be a very good arrangement. You'd get more mileage out of the ethanol than you would from gasoline:

"The performance of E85 vehicles is potentially higher than that of gasoline vehicles because E85's high octane rating allows a much higher compression ratio, which translates into higher thermodynamic efficiency. However, FFVs that retain the capacity to run on gasoline alone can't really take advantage of this octane boost since they also need to be able to run on pump-grade gasoline."

"Cynics claim that it takes more energy to grow corn and distill it into alcohol than you can get out of the alcohol. However, according to the DOE, the growing, fermenting and distillation chain actually results in a surplus of energy that ranges from 34 to 66 percent. Moreover, the carbon dioxide (CO2) that an engine produces started out as atmospheric CO2 that the cornstalk captured during growth, making ethanol greenhouse gas neutral. Recent DOE studies note that using ethanol in blends lowers carbon monoxide (CO) and CO2 emissions substantially. In 2005, burning such blends had the same effect on greenhouse gas emissions as removing 1 million cars from American roads."

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ghostofjk @ May 5 2006, 07:43 PM) [snapback]250530[/snapback]</div>

Is it only a coincidence that they print this crap about hybrids in the DETROIT news?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(larkinmj @ May 8 2006, 01:51 PM) [snapback]251569[/snapback]</div>

Detroit's a car town so I believe that the journalists here have the American auto company mentality ingrained in them just as much as the ones who write for Car & Driver. Most of the journalists in this country are as clueless as they can be about hybrids, regardless of which city they call home.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(JackDodge @ May 4 2006, 01:29 PM) [snapback]249764[/snapback]</div>

Because 53% of hybrid sales last year were the Prius?

Toyota sold about 38K HiHy/Rx400s.

I'm not sure how many hybrids Honda sold, but I think the Prius sold over 60K units.

The article is probably right.