Hybrid Discovery Unlikely - but it's coming

[Rockylizard]

Gday...

For your interest -

Hybrid Discovery unlikely - for now

Cheers - John

[mowog]

Hybrids are the greatest con job ever to be dumped on poor unsuspecting motorists.

Who in their right mind who can afford a Land Rover would want save a few dollars in fuel bills! I won't be in the line for anything Hybrid.

[MR LR]

Lets hope they stay away for good, my 30year old V8 RR would have a lower carbon footprint than any hybrid.

[vnx205]

Hybrids are the greatest con job ever to be dumped on poor unsuspecting motorists.
Only if you think they are intended to be the final solution to a problem.

Who in their right mind who can afford a Land Rover would want save a few dollars in fuel bills! I won't be in the line for anything Hybrid.

If you accept that cars like the Prius or a hybrid Disco are really just research platforms to develop technology, some of which might have applications in future vehicles, then hybrids make a great deal of sense.

People who buy hybrids are not saving the planet, although some may think they are. What they are actually doing is funding research. I think they should be commended for doing that.

[Lotz-A-Landies]

Haven't you watched the South Park episode?

Hybrids cause smug!



Only Ranger McFriendly was aware what Stan's gay little song was causing!

[PhilipA]

But it's interesting that just about nobody buys hybrid versions of cars that look the same as a normal car.
The greatest example is Camry which I understand is a disaster for Toyota, although the government paid for a lot of the development.

My take on this is that people buy hybrids for the image boost it gives them to be seen as saving the planet so the car has to look different.

Also why Prius have no resale value, as outside of the few devoted followers and of course government departments, few people are interested.

Regards Philip A

[Silenceisgolden]

Yes, they are a con all right. The Toyota Pious returns only marginally better "nominal" fuel economy than many conventional cars of similar spec, but the embodied energy in the relatively short lived batteries more than negates any possible ecological benefit of the marginally reduced fuel usage.

The whole notion of electric cars being 'green' is equal nonsense. The batteries would still be charged by burning "durdy" coal (as Julia would pronounce it) all the so-called renewable energy having been already sold off to unsuspecting consumers.

I am a bit disappointed that Land Rover should try to jump on this con bandwagon.

As Mr LR said, his 30 year old RR is greener simply because it is 30 years old. A huge part of the energy used by motor vehicles happens in their building, not just in their running, so building a quality car that lasts 30 years is the way to go.

[Lotz-A-Landies]

I loathe Hybrids, they are the Volvo drivers of the 21st century (them an Subaru Forrester drivers), however that said they do have their place.

If your only use for a car is to drive in the inner metro area or to and from the CBD in peak period bumper to bumper traffic. They are probably a good choice. If anything near or above 50% or your annual driving is above 70KPH then you are a cost on the environment.

The Area Health Service based out of Dubbo bought a Prius for the Greater Western Child Health Network staff to go to hospitals as far away as Broken Hill and Bourke to do staff in-service education. Of the three cars available: Prius, Ford Focus and Toyota Corolla the Prius had by far the worst fuel economy. The simple reason is that the vehicle rarely drove at less than 70KPH. They only ever bought one.

[Plane Fixer]

People forget that the hybrids during build (batteries elec motors) consume a huge amount of resources and is highly polluting, especially batteries.
The slightly lower fuel consumption in a city environment in no way negates this cost to the environment. Batteries are nasty things and expensive to recycle. This is reflected in their purchase cost these days.

[vnx205]

People continue to criticise hybrids as if they are supposed to be the solution to a problem.

They aren't.

They are just a means to develop technologies that might have other applications.

Criticising hybrids because they won't save the planet is about as legitimate as criticising the Defender because it isn't a very good luxury vehicle.

The Defender isn't meant to be a luxury vehicle and the hybrid isn't meant to be the ultimate solution to the world's energy needs.

EDIT
I should add that there are situations where hybrids work quite well and there are situations where they are useless. So what! the same could be said of a lot of vehicles. I believe that a Formula 1 car would be useless offroad.