Hot wheels for friends of the Earth
HYBRID VEHICLES, FUEL CELLS Hybrid cars selling faster than they can be made More automakers are bringing new models to market
Sometimes an idea seems so right for the times that it succeeds even beyond the expectations of its creators. Take hybrid- electric vehicles. They’re moving off auto dealers’ lots faster than their makers can build them.
Richard Garner, a producer at Rogers SportsNet, waited more than six months to take delivery of his Toyota Prius hybrid. He has been driving the vehicle, which has a base price of $ 30,730, for almost a year, and he considers the wait to be well worthwhile.
Like many hybrid buyers, Garner chose the Prius more out of a sense of social responsibility than because of the fuel savings the hybrid technology offers.
“ I talked the talk,” he says, “ so I figured I had better walk the walk, as well.” Hybrids use an automatic start- stop system that shuts the engine off whenever the vehicle comes to a stop, and instantly restarts it when the brake is released or the accelerator reapplied. This feature alone plays a major role in reducing both fuel consumption and emissions.
Garner’s previous vehicle was a Volkswagen Golf, and he considered replacing it with a new Golf diesel, which would have provided almost the same fuel economy as the hybrid. He chose the Prius because of its superior emissions performance. Garner sees the car’s 6.5-litre/100 kilometre realworld fuel- consumption rate, in what is mostly highway driving, as a bonus. When gas prices went on their Katrina-induced rocket ride this summer, “ I looked like a genius,” he says. The industry initially viewed the hybrid mainly as a steppingstone toward the automotive holy grail of hydrogen- powered fuel- cell electric vehicles. The buying public sees them differently — not just as some technological exercise pointing toward the future, but as a valid means of reducing fuel consumption and environmental impact, right now.
Hybrid vehicles are not about to displace the nation’s best sellers. Far from it. They still account for only about one- quarter of one per cent of all new vehicle sales in Canada. But they are selling in greater numbers than most auto- industry experts predicted: hybrid sales at Honda and Toyota are up about 75 per cent in Canada, this year over last, according to the manufacturers’ figures, and Ford’s Escape Hybrid, with a base price of $ 33,499, has gone from zero to almost 1,000 sales in just over a year.
In fact, the Escape Hybrid has been so successful, its production was limited by battery availability earlier this year, and Toyota increased the production capacity of the Prius by 50 per cent to meet worldwide demand. One quarter of all Toyota’s sales will be hybrids by 2010, according to Jim Press, president of Toyota Motor Sales U. S. A.
At the recent Frankfurt auto show, Kazuo Okamoto, a corporate executive vice-president, said the cars you will see from Toyota in the future will be 100per-cent hybrid. He declined, however, to provide a timetable. Automakers without hybrids are now scrambling to get on the bandwagon. The principle of a hybrid is simple: In addition to a conventional gasoline engine, it also employs one or more electric motors and abattery pack, which combine to provide power to the wheels when called upon. With the availability of that added electric power source, the size and output of the gasoline engine can be reduced, resulting in lower fuel consumption and emissions. Or the electric power source can be used to improve performance.
Unlike many potentially green vehicles, hybrids don’t have to wait for some slow and costly change in the existing fuel- supply infrastructure. They are available today, in a variety of choices that do not necessitate any significant sacrifices in performance and utility. By now, almost everyone knows about the Prius, which is available in improved, secondgeneration form, but it was not the first modern hybrid available in Canada.
That distinction belongs to the Honda Insight, a lightweight, aerodynamic two-seater that was even more fuel- efficient, if less practical for the masses. Honda added hybrid variants of the Civic and Accord. The Civic Hybrid has just been reintroduced in all-new guise for 2006, with a base price of $25,800, which makes it the least expensive hybrid on the market.
Ford’s Escape Hybrid, introduced last year, was the first hybrid SUV on the market and has abase price of $ 33,499. And Toyota followed with hybrid variants of both the Highlander ($ 44,205) and Lexus RX ($62,200) SUVs — complete with an additional electric motor for their four- wheel-drive functions.
General Motors also offers a hybrid pickup truck.
All hybrids are not created equal. Full hybrids, such as the Toyota Prius, Ford Escape Hybrid, Toyota Highlander Hybrid, and Lexus RX 400h, can operate in full electric mode at low speeds, but they are relatively complex. Mild hybrids, such as the Honda Insight and Accord and the first- generation Civic Hybrids, can’t operate solely in electric mode, but they are simpler in concept and less costly in manufacture, and offer most of the benefits of a full hybrid. Consumers can expect even more choice in the near future. Hybrid versions of the Chevrolet Malibu, Ford Fusion, Nissan Altima, Saturn Vue, and Toyota Camry, are all on the near- term radar, according to their manufacturers, with GM’s full-size SUVs and the Dodge Durango not far behind.
It’s about time, from Garner’s perspective. In his opinion, hybrids are no longer a novelty act; they are ready for prime time.
“ Driving a hybrid is completely without compromise or sacrifice,” he says.