Click on article below to read:

www.autos.yahoo.com/green_center-article_42/

PPD

 

Let's do the math....target cost of $12,000 per conversion, including installation?!?
$12,000/$2.5 per g for gas = 4,800 g of gas! Without conversion the car can do 50mpg so that mean it will takes 240,000 miles to recover the cost of coversion!

 

Besides cost, the other thing to keep in mind is 100mpg won't mean anything to the public unless it approaches freeway speeds. I'm happy my 5-speed Insight can get 100mpg at 35-40mph, or the plug-in Prius can exceed that also at 35-40mph. That's the best mass produced production cars have done. Hopefully we will see breakthrus in lithium battery technology and/or supercapicators soon.

It's important to know what conditions a car gets 100mpg. Japan's counterpart of the EPA lists the Prius at getting 102mpg (or is this the one comeing out in 2009?). They list the Insight as getting 99mpg. If it sounds like the test was less agressive than the EPA, you are right.

An interesting note: Around 1972, a Honda S600 (think smaller 1973 Civic) got 136mpg going under 30mph. Of course, it's the size of the Smart, etc....

I think 100mpg will soon become commonplace at 50-60mph cruises on the most fuel-efficient vehicles, but it's still a little early.

 

Most people will not be converting their cars. We know this. The way car technology will change will be through manufacturer changes in the factories, up front, before the initial purchase. Still, the availability of aftermarket conversions isn't meaningless. If it can be done aftermarket, then it can be done in the factories. Doing it all at once is probably much more cost efficient anyway- so even if I'm not going to rush right out and start buying stuff to add onto my car, I can be excited by news like this.