Toyota's Prius hybrid named Motor Trend's "Car Of The Year",
in a highly complimentary article in the Wall Street Journal
on Monday. That should really provide the image booster hybrids need. The $20,000 price remains the same from the original three years ago. The mileage has improved to 55
miles per gallon combined city-highway, up from 48. Acceleration also improved pretty well along with everything else. The Prius is recognized as the "hottest" car on the road.
A similar article appeared in BusinessWeek, Dec.1.
The article also states both GM and Ford have delayed plans to introduce their first hybrid commuter vehicles. Oh well, what else is new? Toyota and Honda will continue to gain market share, perhaps to the point where they will take over the entire industry. Don't think it can't happen. Just
look around.
There is another interesting article in the current December issue of Technology Review, MIT's Magazine Of Innovation, on "Making Hydrogen Cheaper". "To spur further innovation, in January the US Department of Energy will announce as much as $80 million in grants for hydrogen production research."
Ener could be eligible for a piece of this money. Unfortunately, $80 million dollars is a mere pittance and a joke when it comes to converting over to a hydrogen economy that we hear and read so much about. Just look at the money
and troops we have committed to Iraq to keep our hands in their pool of oil reserves. And on top of all this we are committing yet another $87 BILLION dollars to help rebuild
that country to ingratiate ourselves for the damage we have done. There does not appear to be any end to this problem until the very last drop of oil is extracted from mother earth. Our only hope lies in the 87.6 million barrels of
crude oil being consumed daily worldwide, with consumption
steadily increasing, with China in particular. We are going to run out of the stuff eventually. Unfortunately, there are too many conflicting major studies on the subject of oil
reserves and when the reserves will be depleted from publications such as The Oil and Gas Industry Journal, among others. It is frustrating to say the least.
Perhaps Ener's break will happen in another area. They certainly have enough different horses in their stable. I
frankly don't care which technology produces revenue and
profits first. After all these years they need to find
out how to make some serious money for a change.
Have a nice Thanksgiving.
Regards. |
