[jamisobe]

Originally Posted by Brian Macgyver

It is not a total opinion in any way. As an old mechanic, I am one of the biggest fans of the hybrid drive. IMO, it is the best system ever devised by humans. An electric motor as the acceleration driver is a wheelers' wet dream! An electric motor can produce 100% torque at zero RPM! What could be better? That kind of torque availability in an 80 chassis could make rock crawling child's play! A locked 80 has been refered to as the most capable chassis around. 100% torque availability would amount to cheating the odds. Hybrid drive would provide that.
I would like nothing more than to be able to repower my 80 with a 22RE 4 cylinder engine and a 110 volt motor to back it up. It would go faster, and climb obstacles better. My 6,000 lb truck would actually have some real performance on the highway.
The lemon in the fruit basket is the battery.
GM recently developed a hybrid truck that used the venerable 4.3 L V-6 in trucks up to the one-ton 4WD dual rear wheel. It produced more direct brake horsepower than the big-block version. Yet it clocked in at over 26 MPG on the highway!
This development was written up in automotive insiders magazines 8 years ago! The technology is in place.
The truck was aimed at remodelers and landscapers. It would run power tools or electric lawnmowers for several hours without a recharge. This reduced both carbon and noise emissions.
That truck ran on common household current, making it a generator for running a freezer in the most remote areas. A hunter could dress and quarter a deer in any place without bringing it home first. The venison would arrive at his home already cut and frozen.
A man who wants to go camping might call his wife. "Honey, get the blender and the microwave, we're going camping!"
The GM truck project was scrapped due to the lack of battery technology and proper disposal of dead batteries.
The NMH batteries that are used in cel phones may be the secret. At present, they are costly to produce, and to dispose of safely. But in time, that may change. That should be the focus of our efforts.
The hybrid may be the best future option. It produces better performance than current fuel engines can do, and it gets far better fuel economy. But it has some problems with battery cost and disposal. We need to work out those problems.

Yes.

Another issue beyond the obvious is an increase in overall consumption of electricity from the power grid. Nuclear power would be inexpensive, plentiful, and is the obvious solution. The current power grid could not support the sudden mass availability of efficient electric vehicles.

Which brings us back to today. We need gas we can afford while we work on these issues.