landowner

What might be the trade-off with the proposed vehicle fuel efficiency policy?

Reading Pipeliner's link to a WSJ article, I found this article.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124294901851445311.html

From the article ...

"The (2001) NRC study concluded that the subsequent downsizing and down-weighting of vehicles, 'while resulting in significant fuel savings, also resulted in a safety penalty.' Specifically, the NRC estimated that in 1993 there were between 1,300 and 2,600 motor vehicle crash deaths that would not have occurred if cars were as heavy as they were in 1976."

How does this compare with the NGVs? Are they also made of the same light-weight materials to improve fuel efficiency & emissions?

Views: 34

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion


Oil & Gas ProPermalink Reply by Pipeliner on May 22, 2009 at 4:21
sesport,

You are welcome to the link.

Here is an article from an English newspaper stating the Prime Minister is considering the British government giving away electric cars for free.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2008/07/21/electric-cars-c...

You are a widget manufacturing company making a widget that no one wants to buy and you have to give it away for free. This does not seem like a good business plan. Good luck getting investors or bank loans. Unless your company is owned by a government, with deep-pocketed tax payers to bankroll the operation.

landownerPermalink Reply by sesport on May 22, 2009 at 16:12
And here's one from Green Car Congress re. reaching the required carbon-reduction targets...

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2009/01/study-conclud-1.html

The study was done by the U-M School of Natural Resources & Environment and involves the calculations for LDVs. We have to do what??????

Reach a fleetwide on-road fuel economy of 136 mpg (ha, ha, ha) gasoline-equivalent
Reduce current driving activity by one-half.

Also, PHEVs are given specific consideration in this study ... Where were the NGVs?

Here's the link to U-M.

http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=6960

And from that article ...

"But if the wall-outlet electricity is generated at a coal-fired power plant, then plug-in hybrids merely shift a portion of the carbon emissions from the vehicle to the power plant. Achieving significant overall reductions in transportation-related carbon emissions will require big reductions in the use of fossil fuels for power generation, as well as for liquid vehicle fuels."

landownerPermalink Reply by sesport on May 22, 2009 at 17:14
Two things jump out at me from the "Mirror" article.

"Drivers would then have a contract with a company to run them and buy electricity to charge their batteries." Contracting to buy electricity ... could be good or bad, kind of like cell phone contracts. lol One may get stuck with a bad service contract (bad) and one could lock in price of service (good).

Now, the other thing ... James Dyson. Is that the vacuum cleaner guy? lol

landownerPermalink Reply by P.G. on May 22, 2009 at 17:51
How are folks going to be heating their homes carbon free when global warming is reversed and it gets cold because of cutting out all this CO2 with all these green cars?

landownerPermalink Reply by sesport on May 22, 2009 at 18:44
Not that heating homes has anything to do with this topic, but I'll bite. :0)
I suppose they'll have to use shared body heat, snuggle together under blankets.
Now, any thoughts about light-weight vehicles would be appreciated.

Me personally, I just want to see improved environmental conditions, economic development & benefits, and reduction of dependence on foreign energy/fuel sources through development & production of US/NWLA resources. Off topic, but I sense you may be questioning my intent more than the info in my post.

Thanks & best - sesport :0)

RSS

© 2026   Created by Keith Mauck (Site Publisher).   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service