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Originally Posted by lkewin
A good article from the NY Times about the 2005 Auto Show and how the Big 3 are draping themselves over concept cars running in some kind of alternative fashion: hydrogen fuel cells or gasoline-electric engines.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/20/bu.../20hybrid.html
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Good post. Here's my
OPINION of where domestic (and most import) automakers missed the boat wrt hybrids.
If you look at hybrid technology as purely a fuel saving technology, it only takes an hour or two of analysis to look at the cost to develop the technology, the f/e and performance benefits of the technology, and the price that consumers are willing to pay for the technology to decide that it might not be the most brightly lit path you could travel down. The hidden factor is proving to be some of the peripheral benefits. People like the improvements in Noise Vibration & Harshness (NVH in industry lingo) that off at idle and electric boost provide. That has been an eye-opening surprise in the past year or so. There is no doubt that there are also ecological benefits wrt lowered emissions, but what is not yet readily apparent to the car-buying public is that there are a number of emissions reducing technologies being developed and introduced by a number of automakers that will significantly reduce emissions produced by non-hybrid vehicles. There are also significant technological advances being developed that when applied to modern Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) will significantly improve f/e. So, if the end game is fuel economy and improved emissions, there are a number of exciting paths to getting there. None of them singularly provides the impact that hybrid technology provides. Also, since they are technologies and features contained within improved ICE and transmissions, none are as clearly visible to the car buying public as the hybrid technology. These same innovations will, of course, now also be applied to hybrid vehicles, so low emissions will be even lower and improved f/e will be further improved.
Most businesses, huge auto companies included, have only so much capital to spend on product development, so lots of hard choices must be made. Do I invest in developing / manufacturing Product A or Product B? Most every automaker on the globe, doing the same level of analysis, looked at hybrid technology and either passed on it or chose to delay implementation in order to apply capital to programs that stood a chance to make money. Toyota and Honda are the exceptions. Toyota, in fact, appears to have been counting on a business model that would have them chin the cost of developing the product, then recouping the cost by selling the hardware to other automakers unwilling to invest in the heavy up front costs.
Back on point......GM in particular has displayed hybrid, electric and fuel cell vehicles at numerous auto shows, not just 2005. Development priority was, however, placed on fuel cell technology. The AUTOnomy fuel cell vehicle was a driveable prototype at either the 2000 or 2001 auto show.
Peace,
James