Are They Serious?

Hybrid Cars + Smart Growth = Carbon Knockdown
Smart Growth Development
A Convenient Truth: Urban Solutions from Curitiba, Brazil (DVD on Smart Growth)

The following is written by Robert Bruninga, and posted with permission:

For what it is worth, my hobby built Solar PHEV Prius is in the center of the Green Car Pavilion at the Washington DC auto show [Feb. 4-8] as part of the EVA DC club. The Green pavilion of all the future eco friendly cars are basically off to the side of the main entrance. With all the big MFRS in the halls below and above. The theme was "Driven by the Environment." (They shoulda added a subtitle... "kicking and screaming"...)

I was only able to attend during the first day which was PRESS day. With the Press, congressmen and VIP's of all kinds, plus 11 acres under roof of brand new clean carpet floors with cars from every MFR in the world, I was surprised at the experience! It was depressing...

1) All the Detroit VIP's and congressmen had only one mantra... "we gotta sell more cars"... very little about "building anything new, or smaller, or with less features!"

2) Looking at the American products (mostly trucks and SUV's and big luxury cars), all were big, crammed with luxury junk we don't need, and just more of the same but with slick environmental verbiage to make you think they care.

3) The green car pavilion seemed to have little interest by the press except for some diesels and the Prius PHEV from 123 that got the most press that I could see. I was next to them (about 20 feet away) and got no press interest except for one small reporter from China but with the language problem it basically boiled down to "nice car." Some of the cameramen did take shots of my "bug zapper" Jacobs ladder I had on the roof as an attention getter.

4) The few people that did ask about the cost of my conversion ($2400) seemed shocked at the expense. Yet when they go to the Ford or Chevy displays where you can pay $2400 for the backseat video headrest, and fry the brains of your kids, everyone wants one.

If big klunky couch-potato cars crammed with every possible electronic trinket is where we are today as a country, I worry for us and our future.

The Smart car was the only small car out of hundreds that was anything close to what lots of us want for the future. And they only had two on display. They were over in a corner next to the booth selling iPod accessories!

Oh, and the Detroit bigwigs, when asked, just shrugged their shoulders and said that with the low cost of gas, the demand for trucks is on the rise, and "we have to sell what people want." No taking responsibility that they spend BILLIONS on advertising creating that "want" because they get bigger profits on the trucks.

I'm sure it was not as bad as what I saw, but I went with great expectations of the FUTURE of green transportation and found little to get excited about. Yes, everyone had hybrids! But they were all still big cars and SUV's getting around 21 to 25 MPG... ho hum.

Even Prius was bragging about the 2010 being bigger and with $10,000 of new neat gizmos and add-ons...

The EAA-PHEV list is intended primarily for the discussion of
the technical aspects of PHEV conversions. Other lists that
relate to more generic or specific PHEV topics include:
* http://www.greencarcongress.com -An online publications about green cars.
* http://groups.yahoo.com/group/calcars-news -PHEV News from CalCars.org
* http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gridable-hybrids -Info on gridable hybrids.
* http://groups.yahoo.com/group/edrivephev -PHEV and EDrive group.
* http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hybridsplus -PHEV and Hybrids-Plus group.
For even more generic discussion of stock hybrid vehicles see the links
to specific forums for each vehicle at http://www.eaa-phev.org/wiki/Hybrid