Quote:
Originally posted by irseg
Its environmental benefits are dubious at best since you're still using a gas-powered car, just with an electric boost to give it acceptable acceleration. And of course there's the little issue of the hundreds of pounds of lead-acid batteries onboard.
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Just to be a little more clear:
In the city, the car is mostly using the electric motor to drive the car. The gas engine only kicks in to keep the batteries charged.
On the highway it is true that it mostly uses the gas engine and the electric motor kicks in to provide more power for passing.
Also, the car does not contain "hundreds of pounds of lead-acid batteries". The main battery consists of 28 nickel-metal hydride cells (7.2 V each), and weighs 30% less than the battery in the original Prius did.