[thechat] Traffic Light Cameras

[Chris Spruck]

-----Original Message-----
From: Lauri V�in <lauri_lists at tharapita.com>
Sent: Aug 17, 2004 4:09 AM

Isn't Toyota Prius just hype? 
I'm just looking at the webpage and it says that Toyota Prius is all fun
and totally revolutionary. That it uses less fuel that almost any other
car and has 89% fewer combined CO2 emissions than an average car. 

When I open the technical specification page, however, it says that
Toyota Prius uses 4.2 liters of gas per 100 km driven and that the
emissions are 104g/km (!!). Now, when I go to Honda's webpage and look
at the data of a Civic, which is a car of roughly the same weight, I see
that the 1.6 model uses 5.5 liters of gas per 100 km driven and that the
emissions are 154 g/km (!!). 

Looking at the data, I don't see it as being all that revolutionary!! 

The Toyota Prius only has a third less emissions when compared to a car
that has approximately its own weight. The difference between fuel
consumption in the city is larger, but the Civic's fuel consumption in
the city, a few Civic models back, was edging very near the fuel
efficiency that the Prius gives in the city. 

Plus the Civic gives you better acceleration (by 1.5 seconds from 0-100
and a higher top speed). 

That Prius has 89% less emissions than the average car seems to be a
piece of twisted information. Granted, the Prius has a bit less
emissions, but only by 30 percent. And it does not sound to be that much
when you look at it in absolute numbers and compare both of these cars
to larger cars. Also granted, the Prius has lower fuel consumption (but
not really by that much when compared to another car fairly). 

Now, I don't really see a reason for it to be exempt. 

It does only a LITTLE more for the environment than other cars and it
does nothing to reduce the congestion. Like - nothing at all. So where
is the advantage? Apart from boosting the hype and by convincing people
to buy cars that are 40% more expensive? 
-----Original Message-----

Nice work, Lauri! Along these lines, I'd be curious to hear from Martin what he gets for *real world* mileage rates. Apparently, the miles per gallon (or km/liter) that the manufacturers put on the stickers (based on EPA requirements, at least in the US - no idea what they do for the UK or elsewhere) is measured by exhaust instead of actual fuel consumption, so the typically high numbers you see for hybrids aren't actually what you get.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/28/eveningnews/consumer/main620265.shtml
http://www.wkyc.com/dotcom3/weblinks_fullstory.asp?id=20761

Chris