Joined: Sep 25, 2004 Posts: 4420 Location: Boston, MA
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 7:35 pm Post subject: Re: The sheer magnitude of inefficiency!
Tanada wrote:
Tyler, I promise nobody is supplying that KIA factory with free raw materials and free labor for the year! Or any other factory for that matter! Even slaves add expenses, they have to receive minimum food, water, shelter etc etc....
As for the raw materials those have gone through the roof thanx to $90.00 oil and the building boom in China.
I'm talking about capital depreciation for the factory... _________________ "www.peakoil.com is the Myspace of the Apocalypse."
There are 80 million light trucks on the road today with suboptimal aerodynamic forms. Previous research has found that several miles per gallon can be saved by specifically tailoring truck bodies for reduced aerodynamic drag. Even greater savings can be obtained if the shape of the trucks is numerically optimized.
[...]
The prototype air dam and optimally shaped canopy generated a 21.23% savings in terms of fuel economy.
I have a feeling the end result is something like this. I suppose we could make it all fancy like with color matching factory bolt-ons but we don't need to. _________________
There are 80 million light trucks on the road today with suboptimal aerodynamic forms. Previous research has found that several miles per gallon can be saved by specifically tailoring truck bodies for reduced aerodynamic drag. Even greater savings can be obtained if the shape of the trucks is numerically optimized.
[...]
The prototype air dam and optimally shaped canopy generated a 21.23% savings in terms of fuel economy.
I have a feeling the end result is something like this. I suppose we could make it all fancy like with color matching factory bolt-ons but we don't need to.
I feel like the efficiency game misses the point.
Why waste oil for transportation when you don't need to?
A decent plug in hybrid electric like the Chevy Volt (coming to a showroom near you next year) virtually eliminates the need to waste precious crude oil on something as ludicrously inefficient as an internal combustion engine.
If you drive 60 miles per day, you get 150 MPG with the Chevy Volt.
If you drive less than 40 miles per day, your gasoline consumption is a big fat zero.
When you see Toyota looking to sell a MILLION hybrids this year and the Volt with a production level that is 10 times the Prius's schedule in its first year...
It starts to feel like a solution. _________________ "www.peakoil.com is the Myspace of the Apocalypse."
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 9:24 pm Post subject: Re: The sheer magnitude of inefficiency!
Any reduction is great in my book. Personally, since at least half of all miles on my pickup are unloaded the mods mentioned combined with a taller fifth would likely bring me from ~30mpg to ~40-50mpg. My DD should be good for ~60-80mpg, but there are times when the pickup is preferred.
Sure a Volt would be great, but the cost doesn't pan out compared to something like this or a DIY EV unless oil went stratospheric. And even if production does pan out, cheap modifications to cars and driving style can easily take a good chunk out of our oil consumption. _________________
Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 4:58 am Post subject: Re: The sheer magnitude of inefficiency!
Hmmm some of the gloom and doom enviro discussions here remind me of a legend i heard about the lost city of Atlantis. According to the legend the Atlantians became masters of nature but they abused there power which led to there destruction.
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