6/28/2005: Most economical car

Thought it might be good to have this one, at a time when it looks like oil may be over $60/barrel soon.

In 7th grade I was taught the urban legend that the car companies had developed a carburetor that could do 50 miles per gallon (this was 1975, and 50 mpg was incredible), and were keeping it from the public. The teacher really believed the conspiracy theory. I believed it, too, because then I had been taught it by an actual school teacher. A few years later I learned that it was a legend and that we'd all been faked.

Well here it is... the entire Ananova story:

Swiss researchers have developed the world's most economical car that could circle the globe on only eight litres of fuel.

The Pac-Car uses hydrogen fuel cell technology and was developed by a team at the Swiss Federal Technical University headed by Professor Lino Guzzella.

He said the "car could drive around the earth only using eight litres of fuel", and that it could be ready for mass production in the next couple of years.

According to the back of my envelope, 1 earth per 8 liters is about 1000 miles per litre or about 250 miles per gallon. But it sure looks like they aren't hiding it, they're releasing photos of it and shooting for the market, etc. I guess the old legend really was false after all.

Go around the Earth with 8 liters? That's 2.11 gallons. The Earth is 24,900 miles around, so that's 11,800 mpg. With all due respect to these scientists, there is no way that is true.

1 earth per 8 liters is about 1000 miles per litre or about 250 miles per gallon.

Hmm...earth=24,000miles....ahh, I'd burn that envelope.

Y'know, there's diameter and then there's circumference, and one can look damn stupid mixing them up.

glatt wrote:

Go around the Earth with 8 liters? That's 2.11 gallons. The Earth is 24,900 miles around, so that's 11,800 mpg. With all due respect to these scientists, there is no way that is true.

Ahem. Hydrogen fuel cell.

Not unleaded.

Well, I never trust Annanova. But A quick Google search finds this link to the home page of the swiss scientists. They are claiming a world record of 5385 km/l fuel efficiency which works out to 12,664 mpg.

12,664 mpg. Unbelievable. I literally can't believe it.

Oh, that's beautiful.

headed by Professor Lino Guzzella.

Guzzella
Guzzllah
(interpret through Boston accent)
Guzzler :lol:

The type of fuel is important. Cassini has gone pretty far on not very many liters of plutonium. Not that plutonium is usually measured in liters, but still. Also, Cassini doesn't have to deal with much friction...

Happy Monkey wrote:

The type of fuel is important. Cassini has gone pretty far on not very many liters of plutonium. Not that plutonium is usually measured in liters, but still. Also, Cassini doesn't have to deal with much friction...

Huh? You might as well have said titanium or silicon as plutonium, since none of them have anything to do with the propulsion of the vehicle.

Well, in the link I found, they claim:

The world record is now with 5385 kilometers per litre gasoline.

Can't get much clearer than that. It's gasoline.

I'm still not sure I believe it. It's about 100 times greater than I would expect from an experimental car. I understand that fuel cell technology is a promising new technology, and that the "car" is just a bicycle shrouded in carbon fiber, but it's still amazing to me.

BigV wrote:

Huh? You might as well have said titanium or silicon as plutonium, since none of them have anything to do with the propulsion of the vehicle.

Oh, well. I guess I read too much into the fact that it's powered by plutoniuim - I guess just the electronics are plutonium powered, not the propulsion.

But the point still stands, even without the support of its example...

In 7th grade I was taught the urban legend that the car companies had developed a carburetor that could do 50 miles per gallon

that is ok - in 7th grade i learned the legend of THE MOTHMAN. yep. from my science teacher. to this day i'm not sure if he really believed it or not.

I went to Catholic schools so I did not learn about the carburetor OR the Mothman.

I did see a show on TV (Fact or Fiction or some-such) and they said the gub'mint had a car that could go 200 miles/gallon and they are, of course, suppressing it. Damn gub'mint. I wish the X-files was still on. Now I have to get my news from Jon Stewart.*

(*Kidding!--sort of)

A little googling tells me that the "km/L" conversion is equivalent energy use, not an indication of actual gas usage. It's a pure-hydrogen engine.

http://www.google.com/search?biw=1280&hl=en&q=PAC+Car&btnG=Google+Search

http://www.imrt.ethz.ch/pac-car/

http://www.azom.com/details.asp?newsID=3197

I want one. And a hydrogen fueling station to go with it.

They are not supressing it. They are just releasing it 10mpg at a time.

I can't help but wonder: how much fuel you could buy as opposed to the cost of this vehicle? Might be cheaper to drive the old Ford the rest of your life.

Doesn't look to me like this vehicle has much suspension travel, either...potholes would be a bitch.

This will prob ALWAYS Be an experiment. At least in my lifetime.

Not much room for the groceries.....or the gun rack.....

i'm still waiting for the flying DeLorean. when that arrives, then i'll be interested.

12,000 miles per gallon, blah blah blah - I want to know how many cup holders it has?

Clearly this is a lab experiment moved outdoors. No groceries, gun rack, child seats or cup holders. No potholes, curbs or even hills for that matter. I wonder if it doesn't even need a push to get started.
No hydrogen stations so it doesn't work in the real world.
It says Kilometers per liter of gasoline but doesn't use gasoline.
The two drivers are engineers but only has one seat.
Between language translations and scientific equivalent conversions it's easy to get confused here.
All that, plus the fact it probably cost a jillion dollars means it's still a lab experiment that appears to be successful. I thought they already knew they could do that....you know..use hydrogen to drive electric motors.

Oh and welcome to the Cellar, BaruMonkey and John. :D

[quote] ....you know..use hydrogen to drive electric motors. [quote] (xoxoxoBruce)..
If they could replenish the hydrogen with electricity that would be SOOOO perpetual.
I had a dog once that ate all the cat sh#t out of the cat box. I thought Hmmmmmmm... If I could train the cat to eat dogshit I would only have to feed them each one time and tada....
The cat had no respect for my scientific inclination. Glad he ran away..........

My car gets anywhere from 18 mpg (in city driving with the A/C on full blast) to 35 mpg (on the highway with just the fan on)...I think I'll stick with that, thanks.

xoxoxoBruce wrote:

The two drivers are engineers but only has one seat.

Perhaps they are Greek?

Best I found with a bit of surfing is 83.5mpg from a Honda Inspire that's 71.5 mpg for US gallons.

how much does a gallon in the us cost?
in europe it is about 5 USD

can´t believe that?! very easy: liter - us gallon 1: 3,7854; 1 liter gas around 1.1 EUR; 1 liter diesel around 1.0 EUR; 1 USD = around 1,2 EUR

maybe that explains why the swiss guys tried really hard.

of course.... that explains it. I think.

rupip wrote:

how much does a gallon in the us cost?
in europe it is about 5 USD

can´t believe that?! very easy: liter - us gallon 1: 3,7854; 1 liter gas around 1.1 EUR; 1 liter diesel around 1.0 EUR; 1 USD = around 1,2 EUR

maybe that explains why the swiss guys tried really hard.

Since I paid $4us 25 years ago in Spain, I believe it. ;)

Here in Indo it's subsidized. It’s 2800 Rp per litre so that’s err, carry the one, move the decimal place, $1.14 a gallon.
Diesel is usually 60%

Fresh prawn heads inside the curtain rods or more exotic, if there is an Oriental market nearby a Durian somewhere discrete.

Got a new one for you.

Honda's leasing hydrogen cars to families.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyid=2005-06-29T215045Z_01_N29476731_RTRIDST_0_TECH-AUTOS-HONDA-FUELCELLS-DC.XML

Undertoad wrote:

According to the back of my envelope, 1 earth per 8 liters is about 1000 miles per litre or about 250 miles per gallon. But it sure looks like they aren't hiding it, they're releasing photos of it and shooting for the market, etc. I guess the old legend really was false after all.

Just a quick math check, a gallon is about 4 times the size of a liter, not 1/4. You should be able to go about 4 times as far on a gallon as on a liter, so more like 4000 miles per gallon instead of 250, assuming the rest of your calculations were correct.

LCanal wrote:

Fresh prawn heads inside the curtain rods or more exotic, if there is an Oriental market nearby a Durian somewhere discrete.

Uh, don't know about curtain rodded prawn heads, BUT!

I have seen durian in the local Uwajimaya's (which as ethnic grocers go, is UNtouchable. Practically a tourist destination all by itself, but I digress). What in the world would I do with it? I have been in equal parts intrigued by what I could do with it and repulsed by what it clearly could do to me should I approach it without proper respect and a pair of welding gloves. Have you eaten it? How was it prepared? I've heard it...smells. True? How?

Thanks in advance.

LCanal wrote:

Here in Indo it's subsidized. It’s 2800 Rp per litre so that’s err, carry the one, move the decimal place, $1.14 a gallon.
Diesel is usually 60%

But it's only 10 cents a gallon in Iraq. ;)