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Old 04-14-2006, 03:47 PM
lakedude lakedude is offline
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Default Re: 2006 Prius vs. 2006 Civic - cost and feature comparison

Quote:
Originally Posted by finman
I'll go ahead and say the Prius is good for ALL driving.

On the highway it is ALWAYS, persistently keeping the battery charged AND assisting the gas engine......
This is completely impossible. The fancy display might show that the motor is assisting and charging but that is completely and totally not possible and therefore not a HSD advantage. What the display is reallly showing is the electrical power path with the exception of the mechanical drag put on the engine to produce the electrical power. The Prius can not function with a purely mechanical power path like a IMA based vehicle can. A Prius must route some of the power down the electrical path which is a disadvantage not an advantage.

Don't get me wrong the Prius is a fantastic piece of engineering (I'd love to have one) but it isn't magic. A motor can not produce power from thin air. If a motor is not getting power from the battery it must be coming from somewhere else.
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