[thechat] NEVs: Cutting car usage in WA

[seb potter]

Martin wrote:

>In other news, I noticed at the weekend that Toyota are selling a hybrid
>petrol/electric car:
>http://www.priusenvy.com/
>http://auto.howstuffworks.com/hybrid-car9.htm
>that runs on batteries at low speed, which it charges when it's on petrol
>mode at higher speeds.
>
>It's the only car I've seen which has a *lower* fuel consumption on the
>Urban cycle than out of town or combined
>
></madhu>
>
>Cheers
>Martin
>  
>
Wow, I'm surprised you haven't seen or heard of the Prius before, it's a 
really cool car. (Not even biased in favour of former clients, I think 
the Prius is the coolest car on the road.)

Toyota have publicly stated that their goal is to get to zero-emission 
(read pollutant) vehicles in the next 10 years, which is hell of a goal, 
and one that no other car manufacturer has yet properly adopted.

The new 2004 Prius is even cleaner than the current model, and (I 
believe) is classified as a "partial zero emission" vehicle. When it's 
running in urban mode (which is most of the time) it's totally electric. 
The petrol engine only gets turned on to recharge the batteries when 
they get low.

- seb