Toyota Prius
Toyota Prius is truly a wonder machine. Sometime earlier, happened to take a short trip in that. The experience is just amazing, specially if you listen to know its features while you are traveling in it.
In case, you have done rides in cars thats available in India, then you are in for a pleasant surprise. It has a large color LCD display panel, which shows up average mileages & outside temperature, a virtual keypad to make calls via bluetooth, touch controls for in-car-entertainment, a GPS console & a screen for the camera kept to the back of the car, helps while parking. But, this is just an eye-candy.
The striking distinction from other cars is that it runs on hybrid technology, ie uses both gasoline & electricity to offer longer distances of travel for the same amount of fuel. More astonishing is to know that one need not plug-it-in to a power-outlet or recharge the batteries for its electricity needs. It has an internal power plant to generate its own electricity which ultimately runs the car. The poweplant is run during braking (Regenerative braking) & the generated electricity is stored in the batteries. This electricity is converted back to mechanical energy by the electric motor during rides along slopes where the required torque is significantly lower. An onboard computer manages this job.
Not just this, but 11 other techniques to make is more fuel efficient. Read on here. One flexibility thats missing in such a car is the ability to plug-it on your domestic power outlets to fuel your car. This makes it purely an electric toy, with the name Hybrid plug-ins.
RechargeIT is a geeky initiative from Google to plug a plug-in-hybrid into the power-grid of other similar vehicles. Thereby your neighbour’s car can power-up your car thro’ the grid & the grid can itself be fed with alternative-power sources such as a Wind mill or a Solar farm. Google’s fleet uses a bunch of Priuses, see one of them here.
The fuel efficiency of such plug-ins is about 29.076776750330250990752972258917 kilometers per litre of gasoline. Such a precision is to stress the fact that even a fraction can save a million litres.
All for good. When are these motorcycles (I mean the power packed ones) are gonna go electric or rather hybrid? Time to wait. :)
Siva said,
October 22, 2007 at 6:47 pm
hmm.. lucky you to get a ride on a super car…
The hybrid technology is indeed amazing.. while ?Hyundai introduced a hybrid model which is more of petrol + natural gas… but this version toyota prius which has a hybrid of petrol + electricity is indeed fantastic..more importantly the electricity recharge happening without a plug in is something great..infact i thought that was one of the draw backs of the fully electric Reva car though it was a real environment friendly.
I agree that allowing an option to plug in for recharge would be a great flexibility.. but anyways, why would one need it if the recharge is automatic through the internal power plant..
nice write up ..
Siva said,
October 22, 2007 at 1:17 pm
hmm.. lucky you to get a ride on a super car…
The hybrid technology is indeed amazing.. while ?Hyundai introduced a hybrid model which is more of petrol + natural gas… but this version toyota prius which has a hybrid of petrol + electricity is indeed fantastic..more importantly the electricity recharge happening without a plug in is something great..infact i thought that was one of the draw backs of the fully electric Reva car though it was a real environment friendly.
I agree that allowing an option to plug in for recharge would be a great flexibility.. but anyways, why would one need it if the recharge is automatic through the internal power plant..
nice write up ..
Rajiv said,
October 23, 2007 at 12:36 am
check out tesla. its one of the pure electric cars with a seductive looks. already has a long waiting list. :)
http://www.teslamotors.com/
shilpa said,
October 23, 2007 at 3:01 am
Hey we have Prius. We bought it some 6 months back. Its amazing. We selected this after test riding all Honda and Toyota cars (worth less than 25K). We are so happy with it :D.
Rajiv said,
October 22, 2007 at 7:06 pm
check out tesla. its one of the pure electric cars with a seductive looks. already has a long waiting list. :)
http://www.teslamotors.com/
shilpa said,
October 22, 2007 at 9:31 pm
Hey we have Prius. We bought it some 6 months back. Its amazing. We selected this after test riding all Honda and Toyota cars (worth less than 25K). We are so happy with it :D.
Ponnarasi.K said,
October 23, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Looks awesome! Havnt seen it yet on the road!
Ponnarasi.K said,
October 23, 2007 at 7:33 am
Looks awesome! Havnt seen it yet on the road!
Ranjhith said,
October 23, 2007 at 10:50 pm
@Siva
Ho Hyundai released one? Whats its name?
The internal plant wud generate electricity only if u run the car using gasoline. Enabling a recharge-option wud help u to run the car with no gasoline & it’ll be a fully electric vehicle.
@Rajiv
Hey long time man. :) Yep, heard of Tesla. But see its price tag? About 100k. It shud be only celebrities who are in that queue. :)
@Shilpa
Ho! You hav a Pirus? thats good. You shud be one amg those fortunate who doesn’t see fuel meters. :) Even Julia Roberts run it. So feel proud abt ur choice. :)
@Ponnarasi
Yep. Very good model, in the lines of Innova. This isn’t available yet in India, u can buy one in US. :)
Sami said,
October 23, 2007 at 11:10 pm
Great car ! Hybrid tech is superb. Great that you have got a chance to ride it. Whats the price of this car? chumma therinjikka thaan ;)
ranjhith said,
October 23, 2007 at 5:20 pm
@Siva
Ho Hyundai released one? Whats its name?
The internal plant wud generate electricity only if u run the car using gasoline. Enabling a recharge-option wud help u to run the car with no gasoline & it'll be a fully electric vehicle.
@Rajiv
Hey long time man. :) Yep, heard of Tesla. But see its price tag? About 100k. It shud be only celebrities who are in that queue. :)
@Shilpa
Ho! You hav a Pirus? thats good. You shud be one amg those fortunate who doesn't see fuel meters. :) Even Julia Roberts run it. So feel proud abt ur choice. :)
@Ponnarasi
Yep. Very good model, in the lines of Innova. This isn't available yet in India, u can buy one in US. :)
Sami said,
October 23, 2007 at 5:40 pm
Great car ! Hybrid tech is superb. Great that you have got a chance to ride it. Whats the price of this car? chumma therinjikka thaan ;)
Ranjhith said,
October 24, 2007 at 10:27 am
@Sami
I didn’t ride. But I was ridden. :)
Price is about 24k USD. Little less thaane?
ranjhith said,
October 24, 2007 at 4:57 am
@Sami
I didn't ride. But I was ridden. :)
Price is about 24k USD. Little less thaane?