Ford introduces the first hybrid SUV

[Rose Siding]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0920/p16s01-wmgn.html

The Escape won't get you into CA's carpool lane but it's good to see anyway. I wonder if they'll actually produce them.

[da_chimperor]

1. I say to hell with hybrid cars!

BMW already has an engine that runs on both hydrogen and gas. Once they get a reliable method of storing hydrogen in non-liquid form (of which there are supposedly many, thought none yet reliable) and an effective way of producing hydrogen without burning anything (of which there are also a number, but none are as of yet perfect) we can ditch gas all together. Yeay!

[Rose Siding]

3. That's foolish

As a goal, alt fuel methods are swell but the hybrid is Here Now. The infrastructure to support hydrogen cars is far in the future. That's why Bush supported it! How can you say to hell with anything that will help?

[da_chimperor]

7. Well . . .

because the BMW engine already runs on both gas and hydrogen. The future of hybred vehicles is limited. Why not put out a product on the market that is only limited by the number of hydrogen filling stations in the country? Sure, there aren't any now, but that could change quickly. It's alot less effort for a consumer to fill the tank with hydrogen rather than gas compared to buying a new car. Ideally, they could have a combo- gas/hydrogen/electric hybrid. I personally think that is much more helpful. How does that sound?

[da_chimperor]

10. Check out reply 9 n/t

[Terran]

8. Currently there's no way

to produce hydrogen in quantity that uses less energy than it takes to make the hydrogen. Are you saying "we" are close to changing that? Because I sure hadn't heard any such thing.

[da_chimperor]

9. From what I've read

we have the technology now. I've read about a number of different ways to produce hydrogen in large quantities aside from electrolysis and natural gas based methods. One that sounds very promising is a method of tricking algae to produce hydrogen instead of oxygen. Here's a link

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2000/01/29/MN76411.DTL&type=printable

From what I've read over the past few years I'm convinced that with the proper investment, hydrogen powered cars and trucks could be a reality within a decade, maybe even sooner with enough investment. a lot of the technical problems have already been solved. Here's another link to a story about solid-state hydrogen storage.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040816/nym042_1.html

It's just a question of putting enough money into the projects to make them commercially viable. BMW already has an engine that runs on hydrogen as well. Yet another link.

http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_38/b3699304.htm

I know my post is a little extreme, but I'm in favor of going straight from point a to point b, rather than stopping in the middle before finally reaching b.

[TriMetFan]

2. uh I thought Toyota Highlander Hybrid was the first?

It comes out this Jan. 2005. Is the Escape out already? If thats great.

[natrat]

4. skankboy supported

the hydrogen technology that uses oil to make hydrogen. I agree the hybrid is a good first step that gets the foot in the door. I drove a prius and it was impressive.

[kysrsoze]

5. Either way, it's Toyota's technology which Ford is licensing.

[mistertrickster]

6. Too little, too late . . . I heard these elephants get only

5 mpg better than their regular counterparts.

[LifeDuringWartime]

11. they get in the thirties

dunno what the standard models get

why hasn't somebody produced a diesel/electric hybrid? biodiesel + electric makes perfect sense (to me at least)