Electric Car? How about a Compressed Air Car?

Roger (K8RI) wrote:


My wife has a Prius which is a bit over a year old. I remember the
sticker EPA estimate was 50 mpg in town. I don't remember what it was
for highway but it was something like 5 % or so less.


I was just at the Toyota dealer this week driving a Camry hybrid. No
way I get a Prius for a number of reasons. Real world driving in the
Camry gets you about 36-40 MPG in the city. For highway driving you
need to specify at what speed to make your comparison with other cars.
At 80, which is a very typical speed here, you get 35 MPG, no wind. The
wind plays a big factor, just like with my full size van and pickup.
With a 20 knot tailwind at 80 MPH I was seeing 40-45 MPG. Into that
wind I was seeing 30 MPG. Very impressive car. Fully loaded it is
$30K. If in your city traffic causes you to drive at 20 MPH or less
then you have an all electric car because you can do that without the
gas motor starting.