French researchers criticize hybrid vehicle craze

Note to French scientists: Those who can, do. Those who cannot do, teach. Those who can neither do nor teach, criticize. One makes vinegar, not wine, with sour grapes. If you wish to be taken seriously, show us your innovations; otherwise please remain by the roadside. Your racing machines are excellent...your road vehicles, not so excellent. My 2004 Prius has over 90,000 trouble-free miles at an average fuel economy of about 55 mpg. I never owned a French vehicle that could come close to that.

Maybe they can make a new Citroen 2CV that runs off of snobby quips that gets one meter to the insult? Maybe they can build a better car that uses a different model than the Prius-style hybrid system and sell it. Everyone knows how popular French cars are world wide...Oh, the irony.

Thanks for focusing the attention back to the point that's important to think about: "how can transportation be independent of fossil fuels?" Hybrids running on gasoline are a temporary solution, but may have the disadvantage to extend the dependence on oil, leaving other technologies waiting for much longer (which will cost society more in the long term -say 25-30 years).

Interesting to note based on comments made is that the French and Americans are very much alike in their cultures, interests and worldviews...

Hi !
First of all: the CNRS does not represent the whole France and/or French people opinion. Thanks to notice this is obvious.

Second: your post is of great interest; but you honestly can't comment without transporting yourself in the France context. We got a fight between those who are in the process of trying hardly to desengage people from using their car at all (and buying a new one), and those who think that we need more roads with greener cars.
My personal opinion is that the less cars we use, the greener we will be, better than driving the same amount of cars, even greener cars. In Paris, just as an example, there is for a few years, a real push towards public transportation (bus, rail, metro, shared cars, etc), which is acclaimed by the Parisians (and the tourists as far as I know).

The CNRS study is to read in this context.

Thanks you for your news.
Chris (from France, but you already guessed).

Willfully shooting themselves in their feet! lol.

>Those who can, do. Those who cannot do, teach. Those who can neither do nor teach, criticize.

And so you're criticizing because.....?

>that runs off of snobby quips that gets one meter to the insult?

The only "snobby quips" and insults I read on this page were in the comments section.

When it comes to matters regarding"la technologie", except for rare exceptions, "ze French" arrogance is only exceeded by their cluelessness and pretentiousness. Being half French and living there I am confronted with it every day and could give so many examples that I'd prefer to not even start. Maybe it's their right-brain slant... They "discover" things that are old news in the US, and their interfaces, forget about it, really complicated and useless. But of course with all the vacations and holidays we have here, not to mention the long lunches and such... I guess it's the price to pay.

Jacques might want to check the Prius as an example of a FULL hybrid. It runs only in the clean cycle unlike most ICE motors, it saves brakes with regenerative braking , saves oil changes becuase it doesn't idle and mine gets over 60 mpg all the time becuase I drive like I care.

If we add more battery capacity it gets over 100 mpg.

If we run it on NG, E85 and even H2 injection is gets even better.

When we do V2G Vehicle to Grid it helps power companies during peak usage and can charge off peak when there is a surplus of power that would otherwise be wasted.

Hybrids are very flexible and can adapt as technology gets better.

Viva le hybrid

This article _might_ be useful if it included any substance of the Chanaron & Teske critique. (Assuming there _was_ substance.) Could be have a link, please?

Chris:

You're right. There were no quippy insults in the piece and yes, I'm sure that French car manufacturers are in the black, while GM lies firmly entrenched in red. I think that due to its size, the United States would have a difficult time getting to the density and penetration of public transportation that is more easily reached in nations of more compact geographic size. Wasn't it the French who recently sent a train to an amazing speed of over 350 miles per hour? Bravo! I recently visited the city of Portland, Oregon, and found that I could either walk, ride a bike in dedicated lanes, or take public transportation (streetcar, subway, bus) quickly and efficiently to almost any location in the city. I conceded Portland might be an exception to the car-centric metro areas of most largish American cities, but there is still some hope for disconnecting people from their need to drive. I think some Americans view hybrids as a step in the right direction, or a stop-gap measure until a better solution can be engineered and "sold" to a car-loving public.

In France the Toyota Prius should have a ZEBRA battery, like the one from the TH!NK, installed, and it can drive over 100 km with no fuel used at all, but use the nuclear nearly carbon free electricity in France. The French govenment was smart enough to build nuclear power plants when the petroleum industry started its extortion.
The ZEBRA system is lighter and many times cheaper than any hydrogen fuel cell system will ever be, and is available this instant in France in full electric cars. France has no operating coal mines, but the US has enough coal to never have to use Nuclear, but the actual per ton fuel cost of coal is now much more than nuclear even with a five times increase in the price of uranium. This does not include the other costs of coal mining and burning. The coal not burned in power plants could be converted to diesel instead as is done in South Africa. No oil company should be allowed to build operate or invest in such coal conversion units. The price of oil would go down to closer to a few times the cost if the EU would take anti cartel actions as was done to De Beers for diamonds, and the US turned its coal into diesel instead. Diesel is far easier and cheaper to produce than gasoline (or hydrogen), but the cartel makes it far more expensive than its increased energy warrents....hg....