[DigitalCubano]

Starvid, thanks for the link!

Wow, it looks like CVTs are finally catching on and taking off. I wonder if Honda isn't too far behind with a similar combination of a VTEC engine and CVT transmission? They've been offering both in different models (CVTs in the Insight and Civic HX, VTEC in the Civic EX, Si among others), but to my knowledge haven't combined the two. How about a CVT, VTEC Hybrid model? And a google search just netted me some answers.
Looks like the new Civic Hybrid incorporates all 3 technologies. Very cool.

[MOCKBA]

4.6 l/100km (51 mpg US) with a 1.0-liter engine is not very impresive. French (both PSA and Renault) are breaking 4L barrier with their 1L diesel engines, that is their engines are bellow 4L in highway cycle and the battle is to make city cycle closer to 4L to push mixed bellow 4L/100km. I believe even WV Polo is better then 4.6l/100km

[whereagles]

5 liters is pretty good for a gasoline engine, even if it's a 1.0.

Diesels get better mileages, but that's, of course, due to higher efficiency of the diesel engine, so it's not really a fair comparison

[Starvid]

Also diesel fuel is more energy intense (and CO2 intense) than the same amount of gasoline.

[Caoimhan]

Starvid is correct:

BTUs/US Gallon:

Gasoline = 125,000
Diesel Fuel = 138,690
Gasoline/Diesel Fuel Energy Density ratio = 0.901

Which is why I don't mind seeing Diesel at $2.50, when Gasoline is at $2.30.

[DigitalCubano]

I'm interested in seeing how much more efficient the gasoline-powered ICE's can get with the variable valve/ignitition timing techniques that Honda and Toyota have been developing.

[pilferage]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('DigitalCubano', 'I')'m interested in seeing how much more efficient the gasoline-powered ICE's can get with the variable valve/ignitition timing techniques that Honda and Toyota have been developing.

[Frank]

I keep expecting 600 cc engines with turbochargers...

[Caoimhan]

There's always this: http://www.rqriley.com/cent.html

[canis_lupus]

from CNN

My, my, my. How convenient. "We'd LOVE to let your cars into the US as soon as we figger out how you are kickin' our tails!"

I never stop being amazed. Never.

[No-Oil]

Well having looked at their site http://www.solomontechnologies.com/index2.html
and read the infringement claim, if what they say is correct, then the tech boys at Toyota have been very naughty ! They claim to have disclosed this design to Toyota during license & feasability studies in 1992.

What is interesting is what they are asking for in their injunction. Normally an infringed manufacturer would ask for a stop on the sale of the offending product, to protect their market share & claim damages. Solomon do not appear to produce anything, just license the technology. In those cases, the claiment normally asks for damages for past infringement & ongoing license fees for continued use. But Solomomn os asking for a cease & desist import/sales order against Toyota in the USA.

They claim to have funded & up to date patents in Japan, but do not appear to be pursuing a case their ! I'm not sure of the US, but in most parts of the world, Patents are time limited, you can't protyect them forever & even during the valid period, if you can prove that the patent was not technically sound when issued, it can be revoked.

It will be interesting to see where this goes.

[mattduke]

"Unlike normal cars, hybrids such as the Prius, whose proud owners include Gwyneth Paltrow, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and ex-Tory leader Michael Howard, are powered by a battery that contains nickel - as well as a traditional petrol engine.

Toyota gets the metal from a Canadian company whose smelting facility at Sudbury has spewed sulphur dioxide into the air for more than a century. "



Link

[Zardoz]

It doesn't matter what attempts we make to clean up our act. As long as we attempt to maintain any of the trappings of modern life, we'll do damage to the biosphere to one degree or another. We're damned if we do, and damned if we don't.

Eventually it'll all catch up to us. In the distant future our numbers will be reduced to a tiny percentage of our current population, and the survivors will live much more like we did a thousand years ago than how we live now. Perhaps then we'll have made peace with the biosphere and attained true "sustainability".

[morph]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Shannymara', 'I') find it a bit disingenuous that they call it a Toyota factory when in fact it's the nickel smelter that's under scrutiny here. Nevertheless, the photo is a great illustration of one of the many costs of car culture. I passed that article on to a few folks; thanks for posting it.

[coyote]

Okay, let's put this into some perspective:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')oyota gets the metal from a Canadian company whose smelting facility at Sudbury has spewed sulphur dioxide into the air for more than a century.

The car giant buys about 1,000 tons a year from the plant, which is owned by Inco, one of the world's largest nickel-mining companies.

[Denny]

The picture might be an old one. For many years, the environment in Sudbury was atrocious. Most of the vegetation, including trees, died under the pall of sulfur dioxide. But, twenty or thirty years of effort have improved things a lot. The smelter tailings are now covered over, not left exposed as in the picture. Lake Ramsey now has fishing again. In many ways, except winter weather, Sudbury is s pleasant community to live, something that could not be said for a good 70 years.

[gampy]

I remember driving through Sudbury as kid. Roughly 1981. It was the strangest place. Looked like something out of a Mad Max movie. Looked worse than that photo. A wasteland. Literally.
You approached the city limits and all you saw was blackened rock and no trees. Or trees that looked awful. The city itself wasn't too bad. But the periphery was absolutely horrible.

It's funny. Canadians like to think of our country as environmentally aware. They are actually one of the worst offenders on the planet when it comes to the environment.

We are a resource based economy, well historically we were.

Sudbury is just one glaring example. I also remember flying to Vancouver, and as we flew over parts of the coast mountain range, you could see huge clearcuts on the mountainsides. I mean HUGE. 2/3 of the mountain and valley was completely denuded. But you don't see them from the highways of course. The logging companies and government are not that stupid.

Same with the oilsands. God...it's not just shaving the boreal forest off for miles around....but the tar ponds...and all the water that is used.

And now Kyoto....well Kyoto wasn't perfect, but Canada should have tried to work within it's framework and tried to lead by example, but I guess the political and popular will is not really there.

Canadians use more energy per capita than any other nation on earth and produce more garbage per capita as well.

[dooberheim]

I though people in the US used more energy per capita. In terms of carbon footprint, the worst offenders are little oil kingdoms like UAE and Dubai.

DK