by The_Toecutter » Sat 06 Jun 2009, 17:24:29
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', '
')Ford Prodigy was a diesel hybrid and by the looks of it, the diesel hybrid powertrain had a lot more to do with the mileage than the aero.
While true, the aero is impacting the highway mileage by perhaps as much as 35% given the variance in Cd/Area between the two cars. Imagine a gasoline Fusion Hybrid that got ~55 mpg on the highway, instead of ~40 mpg... perfectly doable.
If you reduce the horsepower required to maintain a given highway speed by 1/3, you will get 1/3 more miles per gallon under the same BSFC point.
Further, hybridizing a powertrain doesn't have more than about a 20% impact on overall fuel economy(with a notable bias towards increasing city fuel economy). A regular inline-6 cylinder diesel could do nearly as well on the highway.
The unnecessary felling of a tree, perhaps the old growth of centuries, seems to me a crime little short of murder. ~Thomas Jefferson