Over the last several months, I have been clipping interesting articles from the newspapers and magazines I read. Almost every day I read the San Diego Union-Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and New York Times. I have filed these clippings under the following categories:
- China (because it is of great interest to me)
- Space and oceans
- Global warming
- Entrepreneurs
- Telephony
- Terrorism
- Conventional warfare
- Environment and green tech
- Management issues (legislation, legal, whistle blowers)
- Policy issues (such as energy industry and nuclear policy)
- Corporate finance (including energy policy)
- Homeland security
- Cars
- High tech including information technology
First, Cars…
My impression is that the U.S. car companies produce around half the cars sold in the country. General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler are still the only major U.S. manufacturers. These companies are still having great difficulty competing with foreign brands because of their union contracts, which impose heavy pension burdens on them. Under the circumstances, this calls for real innovation on the part of the automakers — especially in mass producing cars that use less gas, diesel, ethanol, and possibly electricity (even that is not free). Keeping that in mind, and just for the fun of it, I have especially focused on articles on progress toward satisfying our national goals for energy independence.
Then, Hybrid Cars…
Hybrid cars (which combine electric motors with a fossil fuel-burning engine) have been around for a long time. More than 100 years ago — in 1899 — a young Austrian engineer by the name of Dr Ferdinand Porsche designed and built the first hybrid car. And, on November 23, 1905, an American engineer by the name of H. Piper filed a patent application for a hybrid gasoline engine-electric motor powertrain. Another, more recent attempt, was made by Petro-Electric Motors in about 1962. The company developed a hybrid system which was installed in a Buick Skylark sedan, replacing its standard engine with a Wankel (rotary) gas engine and eight lead-acid batteries. The Environmental Protection Agency initially supported the project, but eventually cut off funding in the mid-’70s.
It wasn’t until the Toyota Prius was released that the hybrid car finally caught on with the public. A number of major automobile manufacturers now have active and successful research programs. Since it’s U.S. introduction in 2000,Toyota has today sold more than 150,000 Prius cars — which retail for a price of about $22,000 — in this country. Several other auto manufacturers have jumped on the hybrid bandwagon, including Ford, GM, and others. Some models are available now, and more will be out in the next year or two. Some but not all hybrids qualify for U.S. income tax credits, and some states give special incentives to buyers of hybrids, including allowing them to drive solo in high-occupancy vehicle lanes.
My impression is that there is a financial break-even point for hybrid vehicles which varies from 3-18 years, and you’ll spend as much or more than $100,000 to park on of these cars in your driveway. Like a lot of new technology, we must continue our efforts to develop this technology, but the solutions will take time.
I was amazed at the amount of information on hybrids available on the Internet. Reading it gave me a gut feeling that this is the right direction for the future of automobiles. I think I will learn by doing, and buy a hybrid (American, of course).
I’m curious what you think about hybrids — have you bought one? An issue is safety for the smaller hybrids. Some of my friends who own them don’t drive them on the freeway. I know you will respond to this post by telling me that all the hybrid parts are made in China or Japan. I’m continuing to collect information on hybrids as a hobby and will report my findings.
By the way…
I’ve heard some comments from people who say they’re not reading this blog because they think I’m not writing the articles. However, I do write them. The process is straightforward: I write the article, and then Peter Economy checks it for typos. Finally, MA makes sure it’s not going to offend too many people and then we post it. Of course, some controversy is good for a blog, so in the future I will be venturing my opinion on more controversial subjects.
— Bob