Americans love nature and the out of doors, it is part of our national heritage. Many people have come to experience nature out the window of a car, while sliding down a ski slope or on TV. Given the opportunity to enjoy the out of doors on a silent, affordable urban transit enthusiasts will choose to do so. The electric bicycle is silent, does not stink or vibrate, is inexpensive and reliable.

Electric Bikes appeal to all recreational riders, and many other market segments. Seniors want to get outdoors and get exercise, but are not always able to pedal themselves up a hill. Historically fitness and outdoors oriented, will turn to electric bicycles as a way to extend their present habits and preferences. Commuters frustrated with traffic congestion, and rising costs of car ownership, find electric bicycles a very practical transportation choice. When used as a power assisted bike, the rider’s input can be enhanced, and can continue over a longer period of time than on a regular bike.

Don’t worry about towing or horsepower or looking good in the “Prius.” Why? Because “GM” will soon release the new an improved “Hybrid Hummer,” estimated to yield 12 mpg! So go to your local dealer and reserve one today all you crybabies!

“Long live the horse!”

#1. I need to seat more than two people. Hello!!! other than the Honda Insight, the hybrids vehicles available right now will seat at least 5.

#2. The battery will be replaced in 3 years. OK if it malfunctions yes, I got a TV that conked out in 3 years should they stop making TVs too. Toyota hybrids come with a warranty for hybrid components for seven and it may be 8 years now. Besides in most cases you need not have to replace the whole battery but “battery packs” of which there are several in one battery unit. As we make more and more of these units, the prices will come down. Remember when VCRs used to cost $1,200. five years later you could get one for $200. Now they are giving it away.

#3 Why do they make it so weird looking. Again except for the HOnda Insight (which nobody buys anyway) all the available hybrids have the same body as the original gas version (except the Prius which doesnt have a gasoline only counterpart).

#4. It only gets 44mpg not 61. And that is bad?

#5. It doesnt really save me money.

The worst case scenrio you break even. But!!!! arent you just sick and tired of being at the mercy of OPEC? I mean I would pay extra just to be able to stick it to those guys. Being a hybrid owner, by making fewer visits to the gas pump, I feel like i am giving OPEC the finger. And let me tell you, it is More than worth the price of admission.

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Has anyone here tried to make anything hydraulic work on a deep-subzero Midwest January morning? Unless you’re lucky (and rich) enough to have aircraft hyd fluid in whatever you’re fighting with, fuhgetaboutit!

Which brings up questions on the Prius. I wonder how well a Prius works on the really miserable Siberian days, the ones that warm UP to -20F. Does it keep the engine warmed? Can the heater/defroster keep up?

Then again, on days like that you’re better of hibernating because nothing outdoors will work anyway, so maybe it’s a non-issue.

Everyone who has commented on the blind consumerism of the USA needs to look at society overall. We consume because the Capitalist economic model says we must in order to get access to essentils like food. That’s not ideology, just economics. Unless we find a way to change the model for the way we live it really won’t matter a hill of beans whether we get 13 or 113 mpg from oil based vehicles. Moving food from the farms to the cities in the volumes we need for the populations we have in densely populated urban areas without massive amounts of surplus energy (fuel) is impractical.

Fuel cells are really conceptually no different than a battery. Hydrogen does not exist in its free state and so require another energy source to release it. Then it has to be compressed and distributed. Think Electric, Biomass whatever, the numbers are huge in terms of the energy requirements.

Draw your own conclusions….

Although we are not allowed to by fruit by the pound, we can and do buy beer by the pint and fuel by the (imperial)gallon.

Finding solutions to transporting either your seven kids or just yourself and your ego may not be as simple as a more fuel efficient car.
Consumerism is still consumerism even if your purchase is the latest eco friendly car. You will need to own and drive your prius for a long time for its efficiency to offset its manufacturing enviromental cost. Presently I own two cars, one a modern diesel used by my wife to transport kids, shopping trips etc. The other a old bmw which rarly comes out of the garage. My own daily transport is either public or hire car.
My company has close links with a large hire firm that never fails to deliver a car within an hour of me calling them, if its for work the company pays, if its for me I pay. This seems to work for me. And if I do ever revert to petrolhead mode I can dig the beemer out. Not very good for the car industry, but a very good way of getting about , being pretty green and owning a fast V8.
If the next hire car they bring is electric, who cares as long as it works, but it will only really be eco friendly if its still working in 10 years.

I personally prefer driving my Prius as opposed to my Escalade. It’s fun and actually has a considerable amount of torque available. If the 2008 gets anywhere close to 90 MPG I’ll be first in line. Anyone who drives in excess of 15000 miles a year will absolutely benefit from this technology. You can thank me later.

I’ve found that most nay-sayers out there lack college education. That’s OK because you probably couldn’t afford a Prius anyway. Go ahead and stay poor with your leased 4×4 suburban land yacht and your seven illegitimate children.

Spoken like true American. Why must more be better? More kids, more (fuel consuming) toys, more discarded garbage in the landfills, more sewage into our water, more power plants to fuel our addiction, more ignorance…more more more!

So whatever happened to the diesels that were supposed to get huge MPG and still have decent power?

Bill Strong
Racing Strong Motorsports

Don’t you think driving around with highly compressed tanks of air is a little spooky? What would happen if you got in an accident?

It also has minimal range when operating on air alone. (I wonder if they could build a hybrid system light enough to be effective in these–using lightweight batteries or hydrolics…)

Also, there is the obvious problem of where to get the energy to compress the air before it goes in the car. Until we ramp up wind, solar, and other zero-emissions technologies (which hopefully don’t cause other environmental problems of their own), the car is still going to cause air pollution indirectly.

http://www.theaircar.com/