Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/11/16
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]About ecology and Prius batteries: When the 2003 was rolled out, Toyota bought a "Classic" Prius taxi from it's owner in Vancouver, BC. The car had about 240,000 city miles on it. Original battery still working fine. They gave him a new Prius (which he promptly painted and put into service). Toyota shipped the old Prius to Japan for disassembly and inspection. The hood (bonnet) and rear hatch (boot) are made of aluminum to reduce weight and conserve fuel. The Coefficient of Drag is one of the lowest in the world for any production care. Every time you let off on the accellerator or coast down a hill, it regenerates voltage. This also helps with braking. No one knows for sure how long the brakes last on the newest model. It doesn't really seriously start "pushing air" until about 62 MPH (my favorite cruising speed). Finally, it is a "PZEV" rated (Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle". So, for the money and given the state of the industry, I had no problem buying one. Bob On Nov 16, 2007, at 14:53, G Hopkinson wrote: Also really taking off in Australia, although not yet with the market penetration as in Europe. Our Mazda 6 turbo diesel is a very good vehicle. About 5 or 6 litres per 100km and that is city commuting. Also extremely responsive with the power being available at low revolutions compared to petrol driven types. Bicycles are great, but not the whole answer nor suitable for every use. Cheers Hoppy -----Original Message----- Subject: Re: [spam] Re: [Leica] Totally OT: Prius experiences? Henning Wulff wrote: > There are a whole lot of factors in energy efficiency/ecological > footprint concerns. > > Cars do take a lot of energy to produce, and the Prius > unfortunately needs more; batteries are a large part of the > problem. Also, regarding the ecological footprint, there is the > concern that batteries intrinsically need aggressive chemicals to > work and that is a manufacturing/re-manufacturing and accident and > disposal issue. > > The total life-cycle ecological footprint is generally lower for > turbo diesels of the latest types, and these are probably most > reasonable for European users. Now that finally low sulphur fuels > are also available in N. America we'll see more diesels here as > well, as they are even better suited to the N. American style of > driving. I agree with all of this. The latest clean-burning turbo diesels are quite impressive from many points of view. Doug Herr Birdman of Sacramento http://www.wildlightphoto.com -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web.com - MicrosoftR Exchange solutions from a leading provider - http://link.mail2web.com/Business/Exchange _______________________________________________ Leica Users Group. See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information _______________________________________________ Leica Users Group. See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information