VW has introduced a concept turbo diesel hybrid that gets 260 mpg.

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2011/01/26/volkswagen-unveils-mpg-car/

A plug-in hybrid with a 0-60 time faster than my car! 11.9 sec!

What do you all think?

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Muleears
'07 E320 Bluetec 133K my DD
'04 Jaguar XJ8 VDP, 34K
'10 Hyundai Accent 60K Grocery Getter
'02 VW Golf soon to be on the road again
'97 E300 Diesel Son's DD
'61 VERY tolerant wife

Hampton Roads, VA USA

Gone but not forgotten:
'67 250S 95K
'86 300SDL
'87 300D Turbo, 364K! R.I.P.
'98 E300 Turbodiesel, 213K
'02 S420, 164K
'01 Prius 138K

There's all kinds of great technology out there that probably won't reach the market for 10-20 years. No company seems willing to stick their necks out and push anything "radical" to quick.

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-Evan


Benz Fleet:
1968 UNIMOG 404.114
1998 E300
2008 E63


Non-Benz Fleet:
1992 Aerostar
1993 MR2
2000 F250

I can't wait to see the new s class diesel.

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran

Don't count on that. 2015 is much more likely as I believe that is the cut off date for China that all new cars are hybrids. I believe VW is still the #1 foreign brand there.

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http://superturbodiesel.com/images/sig.04.10.jpg
1995 E420 Schwarz
1995 E300 Weiss
#1987 300D Sturmmachine
#1991 300D Nearly Perfect
#1994 E320 Cabriolet
#1995 E320 Touring
#1985 300D Sedan
OBK #42

something to do while waiting. why isn't there a smiley for holding my breath...

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

It's a little misleading to call it 260 MPG when it is a plug-in hybrid. They only account for the fuel used to supplement the plug-in charge and not the total "equivalent" energy when you count what's used from the electric grid. It makes a nice headline for them but somewhere upstream of your outlet there is gas, oil or coal likely generating the power needed to get much of that 260 MPGs...I'd like them to have to include that in their numbers somehow.

The test they use is how much fuel it takes to drive 100 km. They say the car can go 22 miles (35 km) before requiring any fuel so really the engine is only working for the last 65 km and even then it is only supplementing the charge - how many liters of fuel did it take the utility to burn to generate the power for the charge?

Plug-ins are great for people with relatively short driving ranges as they use little or no fuel from the tank (but still cost money to charge up), but for a road trip my guess is the fuel economy would be in the 50-100 MPG range. Still impressive but not 260 MPGs.

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Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz

So, lets assume that in the real world they can produce a 80-90 mpg car using this technology. How many people here are willing to write a check for $50k to buy one? I know I'm not going to; not when I can buy a econobox for $20k that gets 30-40 mpg. At the current price of fuel, I'm not even interested in the cheap econobox because my fuel cost is negligible with my current 25 mpg cars. Most of my neighbors are still buying SUVs and pick-up trucks to drive every day.

Right, but they have to start now in order to produce technology which, in a few years, will be cheap enough so the car will be practical. So, when fuel here is approaching $10 a gallon (like it already is in parts of Europe) and these cost little more than conventional cars they will be practical. They always have to start somewhere.

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Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz

I agree completely, I was responding to folks who were complaining that these types of cars (diesel-hybrids, etc.) are not currently available in the US.

Wasn't Honda making a diesel hybrid a while back. What happened to that one.

VW had a concept car a few years ago that got over 300mpg it was a two seater with the passenger behind the driver. What ever happened to that? The technology to make more mileage efficient car has been around for many years, but it never seems to go anywhere, or atleast we never see it here in the US.

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They should build a crap load of these... 100's of thousands of them. make em reasonable in cost, instead they "may" do a limited run = stupidly expensive, only the ulta rich will get them for some collection.

AS NHDOC said, you have to burn something to make the electricity to recharge the batteries. So there is emissions produced somewhere else, so it appears the car is more or less emissions free.

I have mentioned this to people before, and get the deer in the head lights look .

Say my 300D get`s 25mpg average. how long am I going to have to drive this thing to just break even?

Iam not going to buy a hybrid car in my life time, and probably most older people won`t either. the newer generations will buy into these new inovations. if you want to change the way a country thinks or does things, you start with the young in kindergarden. so I see these being a big selling item 15 yrs down the road.

This thing looks like the first Honda hybrid that came out.


Charlie

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there were three HP ratings on the OM616...

1) Not much power
2) Even less power
3) Not nearly enough power!! 240D w/auto

Anyone that thinks a 240D is slow drives too fast.

80 240D Naturally Exasperated, 4-Spd 388k DD 150mph spedo 3:58 Diff

We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works

I agree, we are always teased with these great ideas but nothing ever comes of them.

By the way, great looking truck! I have one that looks just like it, it's a great rig.

I agree with this statment as well. Here in the Pacific Northwest nearly all of our electricity is hydropower, which is emmisions free but not without it's environments impacts, i.e. fishies getting chopped into bits, amongst many other things.

I often ask, In the big picture is it better to keep using what I have or to get rid of it, and buy the latest more energy efficient one. The cost of operation for me will probably be less, but what about the energy used to make the new one versus continuing to use my old one.

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When I saw the mileage claim I remembered my very first college physics class (remember the '80s?) and we did a calculation based on a local newspaper story comparing the progress of computers to cars. The statement was something to the effect of, "By now, we should have a $1200 new Rolls Royce that gets 300 mpg and will go reliably for 30 years." Yeah, sure....

The prof. used this example when we were doing friction and drag and before we began thermodynamics - or maybe the other way around. It ended up being a ~30 minute single problem. He (we) accounted for everything we could; drag, roll resistance with/without load, internal engine & trans friction, energy lost to heat, etc. We came up with the newspaper's figures being beyond 100% fuel efficiency.

NOW....if VW is NOT accounting for 'top off charging' call it a cheat or fudge. If they ARE accounting for ALL energy input, I really doubt the claim of 260 mpg.

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1987 300D (230,000 mi on a #14 head-watching the temp gauge and keeping the ghost in the machine)
Raleigh NC - Home of deep fried sushi!