Elle wrote:
> "jim beam" <nospam@example.net> wrote
>
<snip>
>>>
>>
>>that's one of the dumbest articles i've ever seen. where do these
>>idiots thing the "plug in" energy comes from? just pull out the gas
>>motor & replace entirely with batteries! then it's an infinite mpg
>>vehicle. thanks for the laugh.
>
>
> What's dumb is your failure to consider the actual costs here.
>
> It appears he spends 25 cents to fully charge his car's batteries. Then he
> gets 20 miles of driving using the battery-gasoline combo, achieving
> presumably "80 miles per gallon of gasoline." So 20/80 = 1/4 gallon of
> gasoline was used to drive 20 miles. At $2.40 per gallon, he paid 60 cents
> for that 1/4 gallon. Overall cost to travel 20 miles with this car: 85
> cents.
>
> By contrast, with my 40 mpg conventional Honda Civic, I pay $1.20 . He's
> paying only 85/120 = ~ 70% of what I pay. Those who drive cars and "trucks"
> getting only 27.5 MPG (the CAFE standard for passenger cars?) pay $1.75 for
> the 20 mile trip. Mr. Hybrid Engineer (in the article) pays less than half
> this.

what's dumb is contending you have an 80mpg vehicle when you don't. may
as well just go for the big kahuna and eliminate the gas entirely.