Originally posted by Flood
So gas is available everywhere then?
In Britain there are very few outlets for refueling gas-powered vehicles – to the point that local authority have had to build their own special refueling points to fill up their cars and vans (which have been bought at great expense to show the taxpayer that they care for the environment). Its the same with electrics – the only fuels in common supply all over the country are petrol and diesel.
Maybe America is looking toward the future with better forward vision than I believed…

Flood.

Oh, not gas, as in propane, gasoline, petrol–I forget I’m talking to people who speak ENGLISH, not American English!

It runs on gasoline, but has an electric motor, dynamic braking, and a bank of large metal hydride batteries. The batteries, coupled with the electric motor(that functions as a generator) are used to recoup as much energy from the gasoline as possible. this is usually lost in other vehicles during braking, coasting, ideling. The gas engine shuts off when it’s not in motion, and it uses electirc power to start moving. once in motion, the gas engine turns on. When you stop, the electricmotor is used to slow the car, lessening the use of the brakes, and converting the forward motion of the car into electric energy, charging the batteries. whenever the engine is generating extra power, that is not needed for forward motion, it’s used to charge the batteries. Awesome idea, and incredibly practical. These things are the MOST in demand car in the US, and the local Toyota dealers have 10-12 month waiting list for the 04 Prius, which gets from 50-60 miles per gallon, and is more powerful, and bigger.

Plus, there’s a $2,000 tax deduction for getting a clean fuel vehicle, part of the Bush tax cut plan.

Some vehicles operate on natural gas, or ethynol. the ethynol vehicles have very good mileage, just abut as good as a gas car, but I have not idea about the natural gas vehicles…I know they’re clean. There are VERY few of these. Gasoline/electric vehicles are a much better idea, for now, since Gasoline is available, affordable, and energy effecient, if used in a hybrid vehicle.

We’ll be driving them until fuel cells become practical.