JMU AFV Lab Blog

Saw this interesting article on the autobloggreen blog this morning.  It’s an interesting concept; use solar panels to recharge a vehicle.  The one observation I would like to make is that this concept could not be applied to a daily runner, unless the vehicle driver worked second or third shift, without some kind of energy storage system.  Could this be an extension of the electric scooter project, Peter?

AltCar 2008: Prometheus’ solar-powered electric motorcycle

Posted Sep 29th 2008 at 8:44AM by Sebastian Blanco

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Solar, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Santa Monica Alt Car Expo, Green Daily

Jim Corning had an idea. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could put four solar panels on your house, and then be able to power a vehicle with the energy created with them? Corning, who founded Prometheus Solar LLC, didn’t have a vehicle he could powere with sunlight, but he did have a wife with a Ninja 250 that wasn’t getting much use.

Today, Corning has a proof-of-concept electric motorcycle. At the Santa Monica AltCar Expo, Corning was talking with curious visitors all weekend, but was happy to tell AutoblogGreen about the bike. The four panels behind Corning in the picture above offer 800 watts, enough to recharge the bike. During testing, he’s blown up the batteries twice, and those accidents helped him realize the benefits of a more aerodynamic bike. Inspired by Craig Vetter’s fuel efficiency contests of the 1980s, Corning designed the Prometheus research vehicle to be quite slippery (note the front wheel cover and the extended back end to give the air somewhere to go). He also wanted to keep the upright seating of a motorcycle, which influenced the desighn. Currently, the bike uses lithium-ion phosphate batteries from Thundersky that have a 4.6 kWh capacity connected to a 10 HP Perm PMG 132 motor. That means he can go up to 70 mph and has a range of about 50 miles. The bike is not for sale, but there has been no lack of interest, both at the show and on the street. Corning said he had to buy an open face helmet to talk to all of the people who chat him up at stop lights….

Source: http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/09/29/altcar-2008-prometheus-solar-powered-electric-motorcycle/

I came across this article on the “Wired” blog this morning and thought it was especially relevant to our own “electric scooter” project in the AFV Lab. It’s quite an elegant electric motorcycle! To save bandwidth, I didn’t put up all the article, go to http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/08/two-wheels-zero.html to see the rest of the article, especially the pictures at the bottom. For more information, check out the company webpage, http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/.

Two Wheels, Zero Emissions and Loads of Fun

By Chuck Squatriglia August 20, 2008 | 4:07:09 PMCategories: Electric Vehicles, Motorcycles

Saiki started developing the Zero X five years ago after participating in a NASA round table analyzing transportation technology. He became convinced electric drivetrains are the best way forward and motorcycles the logical place to develop them. They’re smaller and less complex than cars, and the regulatory hurdles to getting them on the road aren’t as high.

Off-road bikes lend themselves to electric power because they’re typically ridden short distances, so range isn’t that big an issue. Electric motors also provide gobs or torque, a big plus in motocross riding. The Zero X produces power instantaneously, and it’ll catch you off guard because the bike is all but silent. Snap the throttle too hard and you’ll lift the front wheel. “The throttle is like a light switch,” Saiki says. “It’s on or it’s off.”

A low-speed mode limits the bike to about 30 mph and is good for tooling around. Switch to high-speed mode and you get unfettered acceleration to about 57 mph. The Zero X will hit 30 mph in under two seconds and 57 in about twice that. Juice comes from a proprietary li-ion battery that weighs 40 pounds and provides about two hours of riding time. It recharges in about two hours using any household socket, and you can get a spare for $2,950.

The Zero X has hydraulic disc brakes and fully adjustable suspension with about 8 inches of travel. It looks a bit like a big mountain bike, which isn’t a coincidence. Saiki, who holds a degree in aerospace engineering, has designed bicycles for Santa Cruz, Haro and Mountain Cycles.

He worked through seven prototypes and designed most of the 300 or so components himself. The bikes are built in a factory near Santa Cruz, and Saiki hopes to turn out 300 a month by next summer. He’s sold 127 since April (Google’s Larry Page bought three) and has a waiting list of 77 people, including two guys who signed up after seeing the bike outside our office.

Saiki says about 75 percent of buyers are seasoned motocross riders, which speaks to the bike’s dirt cred. Saiki had motocross hall-of-famer Jeff Emig flog a prototype at a track in Las Vegas last year, and Emig says it’s the real deal. “I’m expecting the production version to have a huge impact on the motor sports industry,” he says. We probably won’t see James Stewart or Ryan Villopoto racing them anytime soon (although Saiki says the AMA is interested in racing e-bikes) but the guys at Dirt Rider (.pdf) called an early prototype of the Zero X “the inevitable sound of the future of off-road motorcycle riding.”

As for Zero Motorcycle’s future, it includes a street version good for 70 mph and a range of 60 miles. Look for it in January with a sticker price of $9,000.

Photos by Emily Lang / wired.com

Source: http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/08/two-wheels-zero.html

Came across this article this morning.  According to the article, …1.5-1.6 more units of energy are derived from ethanol than are used to produce it. Comments?

New Research Supports Ethanol Production
09/23/2008

Ken Cassmen, director of the Nebraska Center for Energy Sciences Research says – recent research, conducted at the University, clearly shows that estimates for the energy balance of corn-based ethanol are much more favorable – in fact 2-3 times more favorable than previous estimates. Cassman points out - it is important to understand that ethanol has a substantial net positive direct energy balance – that 1.5-1.6 more units of energy are derived from ethanol than are used to produce it.

Cassmen added - we estimate that 13 gallons of ethanol are produced for every gallon of petroleum used in the production life cycle for corn ethanol. Alan Tiemann, a member of the Nebraska Corn Board, added that greenhouse gas emission reductions are also more favorable than previous estimates when compared directly to corn and ethanol production.

Compared to just five years ago, Tiemann points out, ethanol plants produce 15 percent more ethanol from a bushel of corn and use about 20 percent less energy in the process. At the same time, corn growers are more efficient, producing more corn per acre and using less energy to do so.

Source: http://www.hoosieragtoday.com/wire/news/01502_energy_study_180658.php

Dan Drumheller of our AFV Lab submitted this article for the blog.  My first impression is that none of these vehicles are, in my opinion, prime candidates for electric vehicles.  My idea of the best platform for an electric vehicle is a small, compact car that is easy to maneuver in traffic, and park in crowded, cramped lots at shopping malls, train stations, and employers.  Electric vehicles are most suitable for short trips of 40 or so miles round trip.  For the most part, these trips usually include just one driver and some cargo, like groceries, golf bags, tennis equipment, etc.  These Chrysler vehicles, on the other hand, seem to me to be primarily “second cars” that are better suited for family or recreational usage with their longer trips and limited usage, and, thus, in my opinion, not really suited for typical electric vehicle operation.

Having said all that, I must say that I am fascinated by the comment about the Jeep:  …The Jeep EV is a four-door Wrangler Unlimited that uses the same gas-electric power combination as the minivan, but with four electric motors — one for each wheel… I’m anxious to see how they do that.  If they put the motors in the wheels, they have the best, most efficient, mechanical arrangement, but they increase unsprung weight, especially in the front, which is a liability in offroad usage.  If they attach the motors to the frame to reduce unsprung weight, they introduce power robbing CV or universal joints and shafts.   Comments?

Chrysler Electric Vehicles slated for 2010

Chrysler “plugged-in” the gauntlet on Tuesday, unveiling a secret lineup of electric vehicles, pledging to bring at least one of them to showrooms within two years.

In 2007, Chrysler announced the launch of a program called ENVI aimed at developing electric cars, but other than a few nonrunning concepts displayed at the 2008 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, not much information on the project had leaked out since. Now, in a move aimed at cheering up the company’s employees and stealing the spotlight from the recently introduced Chevy Volt, Chrysler is showing its hand to the world.

• Click here for photos.

The most exciting of the three, the two-seat Dodge EV, is a pure electric sports car with a range of 150 to 200 miles on a full charge. Looking suspiciously like the $109,000 Tesla Roadster, the Dodge is clearly based on the same Lotus-sourced platform that underpins that exotic electric. With advanced lithium-ion batteries powering a 268-horsepower motor, it can accelerate from 0 to 60 in under 5 seconds.

For the family, the Chrysler EV is a reengineered Town and Country minivan that Chrysler claims will be able to travel 40 miles on electric power alone. Similar to the Volt, it also carries a small gasoline engine on board that can charge the batteries and extend the range of the vehicle to up to 400 miles, at an average of 50 miles per gallon.

The Jeep EV is a four-door Wrangler Unlimited that uses the same gas-electric power combination as the minivan, but with four electric motors — one for each wheel — that give it the kind of off-road capability buyers have come to expect from the brand.

Projected prices were not revealed, and Chrysler is not saying which of the vehicles will be the first to come to market. But the company says it will have 100 of them on the road in test fleets in 2009, along with its latest entry into the growing neighborhood electric vehicle segment, the Peapod. This small four-seat bubble car has a top speed of 25 miles per hour and is aimed mainly at residents of gated communities, who will be able to drive it up to 30 miles on a charge.

• Click here for more information from Chrysler.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,426522,00.html

I came across this interesting news release on the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) website this morning.  It makes some interesting projections of possible energy savings in Virginia.  However, in skimming through the report available at the ACEEE website (site requires registration to download the full report) I failed to see any estimates of the capital outlays needed to effect these recommendations and the ensuing cost/benefit analysis of these recommendations.  The report would be more credible if it would have done so.

American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy
presents comprehensive findings at the
Commonwealth of Virginia Energy
& Sustainability Conference

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 19, 2008

Richmond, Va.: By investing in energy-efficient technologies, the Commonwealth of Virginia can reduce its electricity needs by one-fifth; deliver cleaner, less-expensive power to Virginia consumers; create thousands of new jobs; and better position the state to more cost effectively meet its future energy requirements, according to a new report by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).

The report, entitled Energizing Virginia: Efficiency First, concludes that the Commonwealth can meet close to 20 percent of its electricity needs by 2025 through energy efficiency, a strategy that also would cut Virginians’ utilities bills by $15 billion by 2025 and create nearly 10,000 new jobs – the equivalent of bringing almost 100 new manufacturing facilities to the state.  And by reducing electricity use, Virginia can play its part in reducing global warming and contributing to a more sustainable environment.

The findings, which include 11 recommendations for Virginia’s policymakers, were presented today at the COVES (Commonwealth of Virginia Energy & Sustainability) conference to Virginia state energy officials and the public by Dr. R. Neal Elliott, associate director for research at ACEEE, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to advancing energy efficiency as a means of promoting economic prosperity, energy security and environmental protection.

Prior to issuing the report, which focused exclusively on the Commonwealth, ACEEE had ranked Virginia 38th out of 50 states in employing energy-efficiency programs and technologies.  Virginia is the latest in a series of states to receive ACEEE’s analysis.

“Our focus on Virginia was predicated on two factors,” Elliott said.  “First, the Commonwealth can realistically achieve significant savings – reducing electricity use by almost one-fifth by the time today’s newborns reach college – by making a commitment to energy efficiency.  And second, Virginia’s political climate is ripe for taking the action necessary to make real and lasting change.  Given Gov. Kaine’s leadership, the state’s reputation as exceedingly well-managed, and a bipartisan commitment from state legislators, we are optimistic that Virginia can become an exemplary state in the area of energy efficiency.”

Stephen Walz, Senior Advisor for Energy Policy to the Governor, stated that, “The Virginia Energy Plan, issued by Gov. Kaine last fall, called for Virginians to take all cost-effective energy conservation and efficiency actions as the first steps towards a more secure energy future.  This comprehensive analysis of how energy efficiency can help meet the Commonwealth’s electricity needs will help inform the Commonwealth’s analysis of our opportunities for the most effective energy efficiency actions.  I am pleased to accept this report and thank ACEEE and its sponsors for their hard work in developing their recommendations.”

Key Findings

On a sector-by-sector basis, the report concluded that by 2025, Virginia can achieve more than 20 percent reductions in electricity consumption in the following ways:

• In commercial buildings, replace incandescent lamps, enhance fluorescent lighting and employ lighting control measures as well as installing new HVAC systems.
• In residential housing, utilize more efficient heating and air conditioning systems, improve insulation and windows, and make improvements in residential lighting.
• In industrial facilities, employ more efficient electric motors and pumps, improving duct and pipe insulation.

The study also found that energy efficiency and demand response can reduce peak demand, which occurs during those days in the summer when electricity use is highest. Energy efficiency, together with demand response – i.e. shifting consumer demand for energy from peak periods to off-peak periods – can reduce peak demand by at least 26% by 2025.

The report confirms that energy efficiency has the potential to reduce consumer electricity bills by bringing down overall consumption.  And at one-third the cost of new conventional energy supply, energy efficiency has the added benefit of moderating future electricity price increases. According to the study, the recommended policies can cut customer electricity bills in Virginia by a net $15 billion by 2025.

Policy Recommendations

The report provides 11 specific recommendations where policymakers can begin creating a more favorable environment toward energy-efficiency programs.  ACEEE recommends, for example, that Virginia set a quantitative, long-term energy savings goal of at least 15 percent by 2022.  It also suggests creating a government/industrial collaborative called the “Virginia Manufacturing Initiative” (including university-based Centers of Excellence) to address the key barriers to energy efficiency.

The study also suggests that Virginia can lead by example by improving the efficiency of its own state and local government facilities; integrating efficiency into new buildings in Virginia by revising energy building codes that could reduce energy use by 30 percent; and undertaking an assistance program that helps low-income households adopt energy efficient practices, such as home weatherization programs.

Energizing Virginia: Efficiency First can be downloaded for free at www.aceee.org/pubs/e085.htm or purchased for $65 plus $5 postage and handling from ACEEE Publications, 529 14th Street, N.W., Suite 600, Washington, D.C. 20045, phone: 202-507-4000, fax: 202-429-2248, e-mail: aceee_publications@aceee.org.

#####

I saw this article in ScienceDaily and was fascinated by it. (For more on this idea, go to this article at greencarcongress.com.) It seems like such an “elegant” idea to generate electricity for a hybrid vehicle. Being the questioning person I am, I immediately wondered why they would use permanent magnets instead of an electromagnet in the core of the “alternator.” After all the alternator in modern motor vehicles uses a small wire wound electromagnet as the “rotor” and a relatively larger coil as the “stator” to produce electricity to recharge the battery and provide power for electricity needs of the vehicle. These alternators use slip rings with carbon “brushes” to transmit voltage to the rotor to energize it. In this “Linear Alternator,” instead of rings, linear strips of metal on the connecting rod with brushes attached to the case could energize the coil.  Of course proper orientation of the moving coils and their magnetic lines of flux relative to the orientation of the stationary, current producing, coils would have to be taken into consideration.  My opinion is that the engine would have to be “fatter” in the alternator section to be more effective as an alternator.  What do you think?  (I can see this as a future project for the AFV Lab.)

free-piston-linear-alternator

ScienceDaily (Sep. 17, 2008) — In an advance toward introduction of an amazing new kind of internal combustion engine, researchers in China are reporting development and use of a new and more accurate computer model to assess performance of the so-called free-piston linear alternator (FPLA).

Their study of the FPLA, which could provide a low-emission, fuel efficient engine for future hybrid electric vehicles, is scheduled for the Sept. 17 issue of ACS’ Energy & Fuels, a bi-monthly journal.

Qingfeng Li and colleagues point out that the FPLA has only one moving part and is an engine designed to generate electricity. In the device, a piston in a cylinder shuttles between two combustion chambers. Permanent magnets on the piston generate electricity by passing through the coils of an alternator centered on the cylinder. The engine can burn a variety of fuels, including natural gas and hydrogen, and seems ideal use in a future world of climate change and possible fossil fuel shortages, they suggest.

Their report describes development of a better computer model to evaluate performance of the FPLA and guide engineers in construction of the engine. Results of their initial simulations showed that the FPLA could accelerate three times faster than other internal combustion engines and burns fuel in ways that minimize air pollution. “It is an environmentally friendly power source for the future,” the report concludes.

Journal reference:

1. Li, Qingfeng, Xiao, Jin, and Huang, Zhen. Simulation of a Two-Stroke Free-Piston Engine for Electrical Power Generation. Energy Fuels, 2008; DOI: 10.1021/ef800217k

Also see: http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/09/modeling-a-free.html

This article in Renewable Energy Weekly caught my attention this morning. The author, Charles Cresson Wood, offers up a scary proposition, that “At that point, it won’t matter who you are, or how important your organization’s mission is, nobody is going to produce the commodity your organization may be dependent upon.” I beg to differ with Mr. Wood, as it is my belief that the market described by Adam Smith over 300 years ago in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is still alive and healthy, and that as long as there is a demand for a product and there is a potential supply to meet that demand, the market will deliver that product; the catch is, at what price?  Oil may get very expensive, true, but I hardly think “…nobody is going to produce the commodity…” as Mr. Wood asserts.  What think you?

September 15, 2008
High Costs Could Prompt Premature End to Oil Production
by Charles Cresson Wood

Consider what’s now happening at the major mining companies as a harbinger of what we can expect to see with oil production companies. According to a recent article appearing in The Wall Street Journal (link below), a number of mining companies are curtailing certain of their operations, in some cases shutting them down completely. The explanation, which at first blush seems strange, especially given the run up in commodity prices over the last few years, has to do with operating and investment costs. The cost of energy to run mining trucks and other equipment has skyrocketed. In addition, certain materials needed to make mining buildings and related infrastructure, materials like steel, have also become considerably more expensive.

Mining nickel, lead, copper and other metals from the ground actually has many similarities to pumping oil out of the ground. While the processes are technologically different, in both cases we are talking about discovering and extracting a commodity that is in limited supply. In both cases, the supply of these commodities is in the process of being exhausted, and as a result, these commodities are increasingly more difficult to find, and increasingly more expensive to extract from the earth. For example, no new giant oil fields are being discovered these days. Producers must now go into very inhospitable environments, such as the bottom of the sea, in order to find significant new deposits of oil.

In the future, firms that are mining minerals, and firms that are producing oil, will both be hit with the double whammy of higher energy prices combined with higher commodity prices. Higher energy prices mean that the cost per ton of ore produced, or the cost per barrel of oil produced, will be higher than it was in the past. Higher commodity prices will discourage investment in new and more efficient infrastructure, just as it will discourage efforts to develop additional deposits.

As was the case for carrier pigeons, bison and many other animals, the extraction of these “resources” continues until it is no longer economical. Personally, I think it’s deplorable that organizations make these decisions primarily based on economics, but that’s the way the system is set up right now. So the production of minerals and petroleum from the ground will continue until it is no longer economical for the producers to engage in this activity. This point comes when the variable operating costs, and the fixed investment costs, both mentioned above, no longer look attractive relative to the revenues that can be obtained from further production activities.

Exactly when this point will come for oil or other commodities is hard to estimate. Many factors will affect this timing, including remaining supplies, prevailing demand levels, available technology, government subsidies and taxes, as well as the cost of capital. The important take-away point is that there will come a time when the producers stop producing, NOT because supplies have run out, and NOT because demand has dried up. At that point, it won’t matter who you are, or how important your organization’s mission is, nobody is going to produce the commodity your organization may be dependent upon….

…Charles Cresson Wood, MBA, MSE, is an alternative fuels management consultant with Post-Petroleum Transportation in Sausalito, California. His most recent book is Kicking The Gasoline & Petro-Diesel Habit: A Business Manager’s Blueprint For Action. You can learn more about the book, read his alternative fuels blog, and reach him at www.kickingthegasoline.com.

Source: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/reinsider/story?id=53557

From the land “down under” comes this item about algae producing not just fuel, but a product it calls “Green Crude Oil” which can be used like petroleum crude oil with all its diversity of products. I’ve seen a number of these dramatic press releases that were just attempts to get financing; let’s wait and see if the “steak” is as good as the “sizzle.” Comments?

Green crude oil world first, says company

8:22AM Tuesday Sep 16, 2008

A New Zealand company says it has has produced the first samples of green crude oil at a commercially competitive price.

The biodiesel, made from wild algae grown on human sewage, was a world first, Marlborough-based company Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation said.

Aquaflow launched a $5 million capital raising for further research and development of its wild algae-based fuel in January last year.

The company refined the processes it had developed to create a next-generation fuel it calls “green crude”, The Marlborough Express reported.

Company director Barrie Leay said green crude was a manufactured form of crude oil different from earlier generations of biodiesel.

Additional food crops or agricultural land were not needed and the end product was not just a fuel but could be used in products in the same way as crude oil can.

“This is an exciting development because we can separate fuels such as diesel and aviation fuels, as well as a range of high-value chemicals, from green-crude,” Mr Leay said.

The company said it hoped to make it commercially viable.

Aquaflow sources its wild algae from Marlborough’s oxidation ponds and its work was attracting interest from around the world.

Green-crude production also delivered clean water for irrigation or industrial re-use, and this was generating huge interest in the United States, the company said.

The 5 per cent algae-based component - extracted from the algae’s natural oils - produced 90 per cent less emissions than regular diesel.

Source material for the biodiesel was readily available throughout New Zealand. By removing the main contaminant to use as a fuel feedstock, Aquaflow also helped clean up water discharge, fellow director Nick Gerritson said.

- NZPA

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10532401

I saw an article on the autobloggreen blog this morning on Yamaha and Honda electric motorcycles.  One of the links in the article led me to this item on Yamaha’s concept vehicles at the Tokyo Auto Show in 2007.  Below is the text of that item. I was particularly drawn to the “DMFC (Direct Methanol Fuel Cell)” concept used in this concept vehicle.  This concept has already been applied to power sources for laptops and such, but this is the first I’ve seen for a vehicle.  Maybe this could be a project for the AFV lab?

Carrying on Yamaha’s onslaught of the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show and their slew of environmentally-friendly cycle concepts, we now introduce you to the FC-Dii. Like the LUXAIR that we showed you previously, the FC-Dii appears to be based on a model originally shown in 2005 called the FC-me. Like that machine, the FC-Dii gets its power from a fuel cell which uses Yamaha’s methanol-water solution. The fuel cell creates electricity which continuously charges the on-board lithium ion battery pack. That battery pack is also removable for charging and replacement purposes. According to Yamaha, their fuel cell “features the highest level of power density in the 1kW class… which achieves a top-level performance of 30% system efficiency for a DMFC (Direct Methanol Fuel Cell) system.”

The bike itself appears quite small, which makes sense considering that Yamaha would want to keep the machine as light as possible. Nothing really appears to be innovative here besides the fuel cell system, and a good deal of the components appear to carry over from the FC-me. AS soon as we are able to get better pictures, we’ll be sure to update this post.

Related:

• Tokyo 2007 Preview: Yamaha on two-wheels - Tesseract - Part 2 of 6
  
• Tokyo 2007 Preview: Yamaha on two-wheels - LUXAIR - Part 1 of 6
  

[Source: Yamaha Motors]

I saw this item on the “Autobloggreen” blog this morning, which led me to this article and thought you may be interested.  I was vaguely acquainted with the Atkinson Cycle before, but this article explains the theory and practice behind it.  This makes the Atkinson Cycle engine better, if not ideal, for a hybrid vehicle, in that a full hybrid ICE can be kept in a tighter engine RPM operating range and make use of the higher efficiency of the Atkinson Cycle.  Comments?

Atkinson Meets Otto: Why the Prius is So Efficient

This imbalanced compression/expansion ratio results in a reduction of what are called pumping losses. It produces a difference between how hard the engine works and how much power it develops.

In the case of the Prius engine, the effective compression ratio is about 8:1, while the expansion ratio is about 13:1. As a result, it is 12% to 14% more efficient, in terms of power output per fuel consumed, than the non-Atkinson engine upon which it is based.

But there’s no free lunch. Use of the Atkinson cycle results in improved efficiency, but it also results in a significant narrowing of the rpm range in which the engine makes useable power.

There are two ways to solve this problem. One way is to couple the engine to a continuously variable transmission (CVT) so that the engine always will run in its optimal rev range. The other is to give the engine supplemental power such as an electric motor. We do both those things.

Even better, by using our Variable Valve Timing-intelligent (VVT-i) system to continuously adjust intake-valve timing between Atkinson-cycle valve timing and conventional valve timing, the Prius engine can maximize fuel efficiency while still producing maximum power.

The result is the Prius Hybrid, which provides sprightly acceleration, more than sufficient highway speed and the best fuel economy ratings of any automobile available in the U.S. today. Seems like the best of all possible worlds.

- Jon F. Thompson, Editor, Open Road