by Randi J Task

Created on: June 21, 2008   Last Updated: November 07, 2008

I am not writing solely about hybrid cars: this seems to be the best title under which to get a few things off my chest. Some of the other articles provide supplementary information.

The car of the present:

I can only cry and moan about the derisory cars that manufacturers have been selling us and continue to sell us to this very day. While fuel prices were expected to rocket, they have been selling nothing but a sizzle, not a burger - on such fripperies like MP3 players, sun roofs, pollen filters, air conditioners and car brand.

I am extremely glad I purchased a Volkswagon TDI polo, a lean burn diesel car that gives me up to 80 miles per gallon, saves me a great deal of road tax and fuel costs given I drive it largely on biodiesel which is cheaper than mineral diesel. Unfortunately for me, even biodiesel is becoming more expensive and I need to seek a new direction. I have not trusted or applauded the conventional petrol hybrid by say Toyota for the following reasons:

It's a heavier engine that still burns petrol and turns part of it into electricity and stores it. This is used for urban running and the batteries are charged up in long distance extra urban driving. The car is inevitably a bit slow and clunky and is best deployed in a city environment where it is less polluting and more efficient. No to this sort of hybrid.

Given that I gave up on the hybrid options the next best thing seemed to be a VW Blue motion polo which has introduced some innovations to make the car even more energy efficient. In hindsight, these seem to be too little too late given the soaring costs of fuel. We need a car that is radically more innovative and I just hope the manufacturers are working on such models now. I pray that they do. One would assume that there was some sort of conspiracy that they had with the oil companies to keep their engines as oil guzzling as possible (an engineering friend of mine confirmed the conspiracy - one of his friends sent a super engine idea to Ford - Ford replied that they were simply not interested in alternative engines no matter how good they were - car companies lose money on restructuring).

The car of today is at best 30% efficient and more like 15-25%. 75% Of the fuel you burn is totally wasted as heat. As the ideal car has not appeared I advise you, if you are about to buy a car that is efficient to stop and wait. Wait for two years. Rather like galloping IT technology, the car of the future will have to be a better beast. The engine will need

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