Competition? Ford and GM used to have that once, I seem to recall, before they retreated to their corners and decided to rely on marketing to differentiate their products.

I say let Honda and Toyota have at it. Toyota's bigger, but think what they can do with Honda nipping at their heels. It is nice to see capitalism working like it's supposed to.

 

Actually if we were letting capitalism work like it's supposed to we wouldn't be getting tax credits for hybrids.

 

shhhhhhhhhh

 

What about "Think Green Go Yellow"? After all, there are several DOZEN E85 gas stations nationwide, and the govermnent treats an Escalade as a 96 MPG vehicle when running E85, ha ha ha! That's Detroit Environmentalism!

 

9.6 mpg? That's realistic. What's this 96?

 

I was making fun of the fact that the CAFE standards only count the gasoline part of E85 when calculating whether or not a vehicle is a gas guzzler. It's just an accounting trick that GM/Ford are willing to exploit.

 

One thing to remember is that diesel has greater energy desnity by volume than gasoline, this means it will go further per gallon (as there is more energy to work with) as well as pollute slightly more per gallon.


To expand on the idea of your car -- include layers of sprayed-on foam on both of the double-walls in the roof, and the doors, that could act both as a heat-barrier for improved climate control efficiency, and a sound-barrier for extremely good ambient noise reduction (sound absorbtion from the insulation, plus an air gap). Use high-quality IR-reflecting window film to kill radiant heat, as well.

Also, I would also suggest a high airflow circulation fan, with wide low-restriction vents, including ventilated seats (the driver could run this exclusively for more economy, as all you'd need to heat or cool is the person, or along with the normal vents). Implement sound cancellation through the speakers to kill any fan noise.

Finally, with this amazingly clean acoustic environment, put in a very high quality sound system.

Also, implement a GPS-aware system for the hybrid drivetrain so that the computer could "know" that the car is about to, say, climb a 4-mile 6% grade, then it could intelligently use battery power (exhaust just enough power on the climb that it can refill on the descent). It could also implement some sort of adaptive programming that would recognize and tune the charge/assist algorthims to specific, frequently repeated routes -- such as a commute to work.