Motley Fool breaks down former CIA director's "500 mpg" dream car
Former CIA director James Woolsey has signed on with many environmental movements, including the electric car. Just fast-forward to the end of "Who Killed the Electric Car" to see more. A few days ago he wrote an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal and outlined the scenario of a 500 mpg car. Rich Smith, writing for Motley Fool, has deconstructed the assumptions in search of investing opportunities. Woolsey's scenario is based on a flex-fuel plug-in hybrid and the 500 mpg is based on a gallon of gasoline, not all the fuel that will be burned. Woolsey's plan is very optimistic and doesn't take into consideration how much fuel and energy is needed to make ethanol, which accounts for 400 of the 500 mpg goal. But Smith sees investment potential in battery makers and electric companies.
[Source: Rich Smith / Motley Fool]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1985 Gripen 12:59PM (1/04/2007)
Well, by using Woolsey's logic if you run E100 in a "flex-fuel" hybrid you'd get infinite mpg, right? He's only counting the gallons of gasoline (not the ethanol), but ALL the miles (not just the miles driven on the gasoline)?
There are a couple of stations in the L.A. area that sell B100. If you're running that in your diesel you get infinite mileage by that standard. Or if you run SVO/WVO. Or 100% biobutanol.
Just for the record Woolsey's dream (a flex-fuel hybrid) already exists (I just don't know about the 500 mpg, but in addition it's a plug-in) at least in concept form: the SAAB BioPower 9-3 Plug-in Hybrid convertible.
http://www.trollhattansaab.net/archives/saab_hybrid/
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Ken 7:23AM (1/05/2007)
Boy a 500mpg number sounds real great until you realize that it's just a ficticious number. By his logic, since most gas contains 10% ethanol, every vehicle in the US actually gets 10% better economy than the EPA rates it!
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Tim 10:08AM (1/05/2007)
Woolsey because of his background is focusing purely on the security issue of reducing our dependence of foreign Fossil Fuels. Using his numbers, B100 produced in USA gets infinite mileage on foreign oil. It's his paradigm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm and a good first step to reducing and ultimately eliminating fossils from the power stream entirely.
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