Diesel Hybrid Vehicles: What is POSSIBLE

There's a thread over at one of my favorite biodiesel forums, Biodiesel Infopop, about a 35 MPG diesel hybrid SUV developed by students who transformed a Chevy Equinox, using off-the-shelf parts. As a biodiesel industry guy, I see stuff like this all the time- you may want to check out Challenge X, to learn more about these kinds of things. They illustrate what is possible, and indeed, not that difficult, considering who's doing it with what parts.

(stroll with me below the fold...)

So, if college students can make a 35 MPG SUV out of a readily available vehicle, using stuff you and I can easily buy, car companies should be able to do even better, with their supply chains, their economies of scale, their teams of brilliant engineers and everything, right?

Here's their response to the mere threat of legislation mandating 35 MPG for cars (forget SUVs) by 20-friggin-20 (13 years from now), from a recent CNN article:

The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Tuesday approved a bill that would raise the passenger fleet automotive fuel standard to an average 35 miles per gallon by 2020...

Major automakers including Toyota Motor Corp., General Motors Corp.and Ford Motor Co.oppose the bill, saying the proposed standard would represent too steep a rise and be too costly to achieve.

Well, that's just pure and simple B.S.

I've ridden in an 80 MPG (plug in option) diesel hybrid made with off-the-shelf parts, pictured above. It was designed by San Diego State University engineering students. I'm sure every one of them knows they could do much, much more, given the resources of an automotive company.

I know for a fact that 80 MPG is achievable RIGHT NOW, without ridiculous expense, nor undue hardship, for automobiles. And we know that 35 MPG is achievable RIGHT NOW as well for SUVs and light trucks. Those should be the benchmarks. Give the auto companies 2 years, not 13, to hit the same goals that college kids have already achieved- that should at least give them time to find these kids on the internet and hire them.

Then go further. If we can achieve 80/35 now, let's shoot for 100/50 within 5 years, and 130/80 within the 13 years that congress likes. Imagine how much less fuel we'd all use if cars were getting 130 miles per gallon!

And why stop there? We could keep going until we reach the 256 MPG standard that has already been achieved by VW in a prototype that wasn't even hybrid, but was, of course, diesel (pictured above).

Go even further. Truck companies and the military are experimenting with diesel hybrid technology on 18-wheelers. Those trucks typically get between 4-7 MPG. Hybrid technology has already been demonstrated to be working in these types of vehicles, as shown in a recent issue of Biodiesel Magazine. I think we could more than double that, and achieve at least a 10 MPG standard within the next 5 years, and 15 MPG in heavy trucks by the much-talked-about 2020 deadline. There is absolutely no doubt that the effect from such a progression would be profound!

SPREAD THE WORD. WORK FOR CHANGE. LOBBY YOUR REPRESENTATIVES AND SENATORS WITH THIS INFORMATION AND SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION. RUN FOR OFFICE. TOGETHER, WE CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN!

p.s. You can see the myspace page for the Rose-Hulman students and this project here.

p.p.s. To read my other two Daily Kos diaries on this subject, written a while back, see here and here.