Cheaper hybrids to come with silicon-carbide advance

Well, I've always maintained the the hybrid (specifically the tech of the Prius) is just a stepping stone. Advancements will be made and they will come faster and faster.

There needed to be impetus both moneywise and use-wise.

Well, the waiting lists for the Prius and other hybrids are making going in this direction fiscally responsible and downright good business. More and more makers are jumping on the bandwagon by either leasing the technology or developing it themselves.

Personally? I think we've cleared the hill. There's no stopping it now. Batteries will get lighter, more powerful and cheaper. Other aspects will improve as well. It will be like a snowball...gaining in girth and speed...very slow and small at first but picking up little by little.

I made a graph of hybrid ownership for 2000-2004. If you've had sixth grade math it's an easy matter to continue the graph and extrapolate how many people will be driving hybrids in the next ten years. Just remember....it won't be a straight line. You can probably get close even without trig or calculus. Just keep curving it up year after year.

 

first, remember that the article on the silicon carbide chips was written by someone at a company that makes silicon carbide chips.

second, if the transistors could operate at higher temperatures and were smaller, you need to look at how much that would really shrink the size or weight of the control module, and out of the weight of the whole car, if it knocked off thirty or forty pounds, i'll buy you a tankful of gas for your Prius, Godiva...

finally, stay away from linear graphs for this kind of analysis. it'll only get you in trouble. plot the percentage of hybrid cars of the world-wide fleet on a yearly basis, and if it's a curve swooping upward, you're still not graphing it right. try it on semi-log paper (log percentage upwards and years linearly, sideways). if THAT's a straight line, NOW you can extrapolate it.

you can't extrapolate a curved line unless you know its equation, and the best way is to map it onto some kind of graphical scale where it turns into a straight line. at that point, you don't even need to know the equation... just grab a ruler and go wild!

ps.
there are some limiting factors... if you graph the cost of a jet fighter (versus years) on semi-log paper, it WILL be a straight line.

this is unfortunate, because the line will be steeper than the graph of the US' gross national product on the same sheet of paper. at some point, one jet fighter costs the same as the GNP of the US.

there are some limiting factors....




oops... gotta edit my signature... crossed 8000 miles a few weeks ago...