Engineering nerd here.

[jillithian]

I think I can stop shopping for cars now.

This will require me to keep this car for two more years, however, but that also gives me two years to save up a really good down payment. I'm currently saving $300 a month but am thinking of bumping it up to $400 a month, which should give me about $10,000 (after interest and include the extra odd paycheck and bonuses) in two years.

What happens in 2010? The Chevy Volt will be released. So will the Chrysler electric minivan, SUV, and sports car.

This makes me giddy. I'm just so excited about this.

Alas, I don't live in Southern California, so I don't get participate in the hydrogen revolution. Me and Jamie Lee Curtis could be buddies. Neither of us like irregularity and we don't like pollution, either. :)


From my SME email:

Automakers work to make hydrogen a sustainable energy source.

On the front page of its Business of Green section, the New York Times (9/24, SPG1, Mouawad) reports, "On a strip of Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, a futuristic experiment posing as an ordinary fuel station may be bringing the world one step closer to the hydrogen age." The Shell station "has conventional gasoline pumps as well as an odd-looking nozzle with bright blue 'hydrogen' labels. ... Faced with the perils of global warming and soaring prices, automakers and oil" firms "have been working together" to make hydrogen sustainable source of energy. "Their answer is to introduce both cars and new fuel stations, clustering them in urban centers like Los Angeles, Berlin, and Tokyo." And "this strategy" includes "Honda's decision to lease about 200 of its newly developed FCX Clarity cars over the next three years to selected customers in Southern California, who will be able to fill them up at the new Shell station and others." The vehicle "uses a fuel cell to power an electric motor; the cars are being leased for $600 a month, a fraction of what they would cost to buy." The Times notes, "Other carmakers, including Ford, BMW, Volkswagen, and Daimler, are working on prototypes."

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Also, Honda is kicking butt and taking names:

Flexible plants give Honda strategic advantage over rivals.

On the front of its Marketplace section, the Wall Street Journal (9/23, B1, Linebaugh) reported that flexible plants are "considered quite a feat" in the automotive world. Operators at a Honda Motor Co. plant in East Liberty, Ohio, which makes Civic compacts, can easily halt the production line, letting workers sweep "in to install new hand-like parts on the giant gray robots that weld steel into the cars' frames." After five minutes the line is "back to life, and the robots [start] zapping together a longer, taller vehicle, the CR-V crossover." While in other manufacturers' factories, the process of "switching from one model to a completely different one still can take weeks and millions of dollars," the Journal noted, "the manufacturing dexterity of Honda's plants...is emerging as a key strategic advantage for the company." When gasoline prices are "volatile," the automaker "can adjust production to inventory levels faster than its competitors." For instance, "earlier this year, gasoline prices reached $4 a gallon," and Honda "slowed production of its Ridgeline pickup truck at its Canada plant and increased output of better-selling vehicles." Furthermore, "to respond to changes in economic conditions," the manufacturer "is able to shuffle production among different plants as well as make different models in one plant."

Comments

[thetim.livejournal.com]

This guy wrote another example of why foreign car companies are kicking the shit out of American car companies. It's a football column feature pictures of cheerleaders, but if you scroll down to the heading "More on Mileage and Politics," you'll see some interesting political manuvering by car companies.

[princess-nicci.livejournal.com]

Cheerleaders, eh? Is this what you get paid overtime to do :P

[princess-nicci.livejournal.com]

Sweet car!

Also, I heard something about electric cars that they will only go 40 miles without gas. What happens after that? Do you have to recharge it? Does it run on gas after that? What's the gas mileage?

I would love to have a hybrid car! Sometimes I miss my 40 mpg Saturn :(

[jillithian.livejournal.com]

The way they are marketed is for the 70% (or so) of drivers that commute less than 40 miles every day to work. After that, they have a small gas engine that can go up to 400 miles on an 8 gallon tank.