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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (228149)	4/7/2005 12:41:04 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573682

You are assuming an equivalent size car. A hybrid might replace a large SUV, and be cheaper to produce. Yes I am making that assumption and it is a very reasonable one to make. If people really wanted the smaller cars they would have bought them. They buy the SUVs because that is what they want. Push them to buy something else and the fact that they have to settle for their second or third (or 48th) alternative is itself a cost to them. It can be argued that the benefits outweigh the costs but even if they do the costs still have to be considered. Also if the incentive is for all hybrids then people will be buying large hybrid cars, hybrid SUVs, hybrids sports cars, ect. If you want to make the incentive just for small cheap hybrids then you are changing the scenario. And also you have to compare the costs not just to the current situation, but to the situation where people replace current conventional cars with smaller conventional cars. If you want to talk about the benefits and costs of hybrids than you should talk about those benefits and costs, not the benefits and costs of other changes that can be implemented separately from a move to hybrid technology, esp when hybrid technology can also be implemented separately. Tim

To: Road Walker who wrote (228149)	4/7/2005 1:15:51 PM
From: Tenchusatsu	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1573682

JF and Tim, just read a review of the Accord Hybrid on Consumer Reports. Fuel economy only rose from 23 MPG to 25 MPG, since the car is only a "mild hybrid" in that the electric motor can only assist but cannot drive the car by itself. Meanwhile, the entire spare tire bay is replaced with the batteries and a can of "fix-a-flat." Bottom line is that a lot was added to the Accord just to make it a mild hybrid. Not a bad start, but far from a simple "drop-in" technology that can be applied to most cars out there. Tenchusatsu