We had the Prius Plug-In Hybrid for a week of testing at the Design News sister site Automotive Designline. Click herefor our report on living with a plug-in.
13 miles certainly doesn't get you very far, yes. And even during those 13 miles the engine isn't completely off all the time.
However, if you tend to make a lot of short trips at low speed, the engine would be off almost all of that time. Short trips are very desirable to target, however, because tend to really drop your mileage. That, since gasoline engines run especially inefficiently at low speeds, or at idle. Or before/while warming up.
On a somewhat-related note, I've seen discussions of the Volt of the nature of, "I wouldn't buy this thing because, I can't fit my 50-mile commute into the nominal 40 mile pure-electric range of the car." Well, OK, but isn't burning 10 miles of gas a big improvement over burning 50 miles worth of gas?
As distances here are expanded compared to other parts of the country, <13 miles doesn't get us very far. I didn't mention in my post that I sold the Prius 2002 because it had no trunk. My needs changed, so I bought a used 2002 Aerio SX (Suzuki) hatchback (in 2004) that has good carrying capacity. Put $7k in the bank. It gets a measured 29-30 mpg, losing 1 mpg when the A/C is on.
To tucsonics: In answer to your question about air conditioining, the 13-mile range that I got was with the AC off. I can only assume that would drop by a mile or two if the AC was turned on.
Having a battery warranted for 8 years or 100Kmiles doesn't necessarily mean that either OEMs or their customers actually expect it to fail after that period.
Statistically, Prius batteries are warranted similarly, but go much longer than that. Can't be certain with Li-Ion instead of NiMH, but I guess we'll see...
Air conditioning certainly does take a bit out of my 2009 Prius' mileage, but thankfully not to the point of keeping the engine running all the time. Then again, here in Austin, it's only 100 degrees at 9:30PM! :-)
Is the 13 mile range with or without the air conditioner on?
I owned the 2002 Prius and with the A/C on, the engine never turned off. MPG was reduced by 2-4 with A/C on. Here in Tucson AZ we need A/C at least half a year.
Rob: Automakers are definitely considering battery replacement, and are trying to make it part of the buying decision. GM offers an eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty on the Volt's battery. The fact that they did so indicates consumers are asking about it. However, my guess is that most consumers aren't asking about it until it comes time to plunk down the money. Nissan actually interviews prospective buyers of the Leaf to make sure they understand the issues associated with the performance and care of an electric car.
I think that full-production EVs are still new enough that a mentality related to battery replacement has not yet to emerge. However, I think the expectation is that you simply won't need to replace traction batteries for a normal expected lifetime of the vehicle - say, 150Kmiles. As for whether it will really happen that way ... I guess we'll see.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New versions of BASF's Ecovio line are both compostable and designed for either injection molding or thermoforming. These combinations are becoming more common for the single-use bioplastics used in food service and food packaging applications, but are still not widely available.
Andrew Morris designed a circuit that could detect a stroke victim's groan and convert the sound into a signal so caregivers would know when help was needed.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
0 
