Ford presents its new Explorer as Eco Friendly

[Jurg]

Ford has reveled it's new 2011 model of the Explorer,
Ford presents new eco friendly Explorer ... rer/01256/
calling it eco-friendly. supposedly the new model has an EcoBoost engine that will consume 20% less fuel than the last model.
Thank you Ford for the effort in reducing fuel consumption, but to me all this is nice Eco-PR. It might be a better investment and a much bolder step for Ford to introduce a fully electric car to the US market. another fuel consuming SUV doesn't really qualify as eco-friendly in my eyes, wouldn't you agree?

[sucahyo]

With that claim, we can easily estimate that this new Explorer can give 18 mpg city (13l/100 km), 26 mpg highway range as opposed to the average Explorer’s 14 mpg in the city (16l/100 km) and 20 mpg on the highway (11l/100 km)

Not worth to call eco if compared to 48 mpg prius.

[Freezer]

I believe car companies could build 100mpg car if they wanted to, but since they are in bed with the oil cartel, that will never happen. My civic gets 39 mpg highway and it's 4 years older than that ford..Sure it's a couple 1,000 pounds lighter, and 4cyl but still, they can do a 100 times better, but choose not to. I think electric is the way to go, but if the oil companies keep buying up the battery patents we will never get anywhere. However I don't think they can stop the advancement forever..

[Sephiroth]

Oil Companies Suppress 200mpg Car in the 1930s

Article originally published by The Times, but they have since taken it off their website....

[EgmQC]

Ford has reveled it's new 2011 model of the Explorer,
Ford presents new eco friendly Explorer ... rer/01256/
calling it eco-friendly. supposedly the new model has an EcoBoost engine that will consume 20% less fuel than the last model.
Thank you Ford for the effort in reducing fuel consumption, but to me all this is nice Eco-PR. It might be a better investment and a much bolder step for Ford to introduce a fully electric car to the US market. another fuel consuming SUV doesn't really qualify as eco-friendly in my eyes, wouldn't you agree?

Electric car is really not eco friendly, if everybody switch to electric car the energy demand will climb to the roof and more power plan will be needed so more nuclear power plan/coal power plan /hydro power plan will be needed so more pollution and a HIGHER price per KW. Battery don't have a infinite lifespan too and are not too eco friendly when its time to put them in the garbage.Electric car only transfer the energy demand from Oil to Power plan, in the end nothing really change.

Best Regards,
EgmQC

[everwiser]

I had a new Honda CRX in 1987 that regularly got over 40 mpg and it wasn't even the "efficient" option CRX. The "HF" of that same year regularly got over 50 mpg. I'll grant that it definitely wasn't a family size car but if they could do that with carburetors in the late 80's, they've got no excuse for not getting much better mileage today. Hell, every new car on the road today has more processing power and control in its computer than the entire Apollo space program had in the 60's/70's. Add to this that the additives in today's gasoline prevent complete vaporization and you can smell the conspiracy every time you start the car. It's really disgusting...

[jibbguy]

You guys are totally right about that, there is no question we have been kept at very low mileage for cars on purpose. My buddy has an old Volkswagen pick-up Diesel, that still gets about 50 MPG, and it's got over 250k miles on it, lol.

Man, they got rid of that vehicle from American showrooms quickly when they realized what it could do, although they sold it in Europe for many years more

But regarding EV's... It is a small but nevertheless good step, imo. ANYTHING that cuts gasoline use is better for the ecology in the end, as ICE are less efficient than coal fired boilers and the grid (not much lol, but still). It will come on slowly, so there will not be a huge additional or immediate burden on the grid. And it is an interim step...

Think of it this way: Down the road, it will be easier to convert an EV to a solid-state F-E device power source than an ICE or Diesel vehicle would be lol

Perhaps one the things that EV's will do, is get more people aware of their energy usage; and get them realizing THERE ARE BETTER WAYS TO LIVE than using oil.

Everyone here knows that, but many folks don't realize that yet. They think that is the only way to live... that's the way its been all their life, they never questioned it. Hopefully, seeing silent sleek EV's cruising around, will get them thinking and questioning the energy situation more.

One thing i never hear mentioned tho, is this: I do not think EV tech will cut it with trucks at all. Too much high current use. So one of the largest users of Diesel, long-haul "18 wheelers", will go on getting 6 or 7 miles per gallon for a long, long time. But on the bright side, HHO boosters (low volume H used only for combustion "speeding") are becoming "mainstream" with them now and many are being converted.

YouTube - Hydrogen Generator for Better Fuel Mileage

And another company in the U.K. doing it

YouTube - Hydrogen Technology - Oil Drum / Save Fuel on the BBC

[Cloxxki]

I keep telling everyone, that cars have not become more economical in the past decades. Yet improvement in the eco department is claimed every year.
Engines themselves will need to be be changed. As in, skipping the crank shaft nonsense. Actual heat harvesting and reduction.
Actual arodynamic design. A stupid plastic cone on the behind of a car makes for huge economy improvements already.

Cars today sem designed to burn the maximum acceptable petrol per km.

What also gets to me is people talking about the displacement of an engine to indicate its power or speed. 1.6 has been a medium to small engine since forever. In racing, engine power improves every year, and so does mileage for power (don't quote me on that last bit though).

[sucahyo]

Electric car is really not eco friendly, if everybody switch to electric car the energy demand will climb to the roof and more power plan will be needed so more nuclear power plan/coal power plan /hydro power plan will be needed so more pollution and a HIGHER price per KW. Battery don't have a infinite lifespan too and are not too eco friendly when its time to put them in the garbage.

The big difference is electricity can also use sun and wind. Solar cell and wind power is on the rise again, current progress is offshore.

Radiant oscillator can revive dead battery which can be used to improve battery life span too. If any charger is replaced with radiant charger, battery waste reduce considerably. I never throw away my D cell zinc carbon anymore.


If you want to have high mileage, drive at the highest gear at high speed. Tune your car to get it most power at 1500rpm. If you usually drive at 55 mph at 4500 rpm driving at 1500 rpm may get you up to three times more mileage. However since modern car have almost no power at 1500 rpm, I think we should settle with twice.

[cody]

I agree with you sucaho, there are lots of things we can currently do to help.

I just bought a 94 geo metro to make a aerometro conversion. You can expect 55-80mpg out of these depending on how many mods you do and how your driving style is. All for a few grand, car included. Much cheaper than a new hybrid but a lot of work(fun). Here is a good website and forum if anyones intrested in that stuff.

65+ Vehicle modifications for better fuel economy - EcoModder.com

I also think that electric will be the way of the future, but i am well aware of the current problem (batteries). I believe this issue will be resolved in the future. Just imaging no battery at all and the car running off tesla's wireless system.