The 10 most fuel-efficient new automobiles available in America

[JusBringIt]

why not make an hybrid bicycle? Part electric, part pedal, and regenerate power down hills....would make some sense...I'd ride that all summer. how many lead acid batteries would you need? 2? 3? put a nice sized holder on the back coupled with a small electric motor? hmm...I need to look into this some more. or rather, an atv with an electric and pedal propulsion (for winter) ....oh so many possibilities...this is exciting!

[xcel]

Hi Mulad:

___Given the initial production launch of the Tesla today, I think Reid and I can do a little configuring of the article to include the Tesla and it will indeed be right on the top of the heap

___Good Luck

___Wayne

[mulad]

Yep, I saw they put out a press release and a blog post saying the assembly line has started up. It'll still be several weeks before they get in the hands of customers, since they need to get shipped to California before getting the battery pack and motor, but things are finally moving along. Heh, they're only a year behind schedule, right? ;-)

[bomber991]

Originally Posted by JusBringIt

why not make an hybrid bicycle? Part electric, part pedal, and regenerate power down hills....would make some sense...I'd ride that all summer. how many lead acid batteries would you need? 2? 3? put a nice sized holder on the back coupled with a small electric motor? hmm...I need to look into this some more. or rather, an atv with an electric and pedal propulsion (for winter) ....oh so many possibilities...this is exciting!

They already exist. Just the problem is that the pre-made ones only have a range under 10 miles and stop assisting your pedaling once you hit 20 mph. They also look really really dorky. After the charge is gone then you're pedaling a bike that weighs 80 pounds.

You can however build your own for about $800 to $1000 with 1 or 2 batteries. It'll have a 15 mile range and no 20 mph speed restriction. From what I've read most people say that you don't want the bike to regenerate power while going down the hills because it slows the bike down too much, that it's better to just coast.

[rxhybrid]

2008 Ford Escape Hybrid @ 32mpg. It beats a lot of those other automobiles.

[Dan]

Originally Posted by JusBringIt

why not make an hybrid bicycle? Part electric, part pedal, and regenerate power down hills....would make some sense...I'd ride that all summer. how many lead acid batteries would you need? 2? 3? put a nice sized holder on the back coupled with a small electric motor? hmm...I need to look into this some more. or rather, an atv with an electric and pedal propulsion (for winter) ....oh so many possibilities...this is exciting!

http://www.schwinnbike.com/products/...ory.php?id=110

I'd love one, but doesn't get the kids to school.

Originally Posted by mulad

I'm just wondering when the Tesla Roadster will get added to fueleconomy.gov. Maybe it won't for some reason, but I hope it will. Yeah, it's an expensive car, but I just laugh when I imagine newscasters across the nation stumbling over "one hundred and thirty-five miles per gallon" when they annually talk about the most fuel-efficient cars. Well, I'm not entirely sure if they'll officially post 135 mpg. We'll see.

The Tesla site lists the vehicle efficiently at 110 Wh/Mi. Which in my book is about 130.9 MPG, but there are two factors to consider. 110 Wh/Mi DC is probably going to translate to about 120-130 Wh/Mi AC since the inverter has some inefficiencies. So the 130.9 MPG, if measured against this will shrink to about 100 - 115 MPG. Also since these are figures that the Manufacturer is listing, they are probably kind of like CAFE numbers (66.7 MPG for Prius). Given that most (Joe Nascar) people are 30% below CAFE, I'd suspect that the real world efficency of the Tesla to be about 160 - 180 Wh/Mi or 80 - 90 MPG for your average non-schooled driver.

Of course, put Wayne behind the wheel and were in the 200 MPG range, no problem.

11011011

[mparrish]

Originally Posted by Dan

Of course, put Wayne behind the wheel and were in the 200 MPG range, no problem.
11011011

I would expect Wayne's Tesla to actually end up PRODUCING electrical output. "Wayne's Tesla power plant", or "little grid beauty". We'd have him drive continuously at night to provide power for a small village.

[mulad]

Here's what Tesla claims to have seen in real-world driving. I'm sure it's not the entire range that's possible, and this was also done with a different motor & transmisison than what actual consumers will get.

• 267 miles of conservative urban driving in the suburbs around San Carlos (a best-case scenario)
• 230 miles from North Lake Tahoe to San Carlos with two occupants plus luggage
• 227 miles of highway cruising on the I-5 freeway, south of Stockton
• 222 miles including sporty driving from San Carlos to Santa Cruz via the hilly Skyline Blvd, and highway cruising from Santa Cruz to San Carlos via Hwy 1, San Francisco, and US 101
• 213, 209 and 203 miles of highway cruising with A/C using I-280, Hwy 85 and US 101
• 186 miles of aggressive driving on I-280 and the round trip from Woodside to San Gregorio Beach via Hwy 84
• 165 miles of impatient commuting, aggressive stops and starts, high speeds, and air conditioning on from Saratoga Gap to San Carlos via Hwy 9, Hwy 85 and I-280 (a worst-case scenario)

http://www.teslamotors.com/blog4/?p=60

[Right Lane Cruiser]

Interesting statistics!! I could go a LONG time on a charge if that is what they are seeing.

[shifty35]

Originally Posted by Right Lane Cruiser

Interesting statistics!! I could go a LONG time on a charge if that is what they are seeing.

We'd lose more due to self-discharge because it's taking us so long to actually discharge it!