wanna bet?? Have you ever drove in bumber to bumber traffic? If every car took an extra 2 seconds to start and get put into gear every time you had to move, you would have total Chasos(sp)... And if the engien was cold it would take even longer to start. Imagine how the battery wear would be too if every 5 seconds it would have to start the engine to move in rush hour urban traffic..
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Originally Posted by HeRoze
Engines that shut off and restart at traffic lights will not have the impact you are implying. There is an initial surge of fuel at start to get things going. The reaction time is quite a bit diminished as well (someone else pointed this out). Diesel engines appear to be the next practical engine design that offers the fuel consumption, power, AND emissions standards that we are all looking for. They've been around for quite a while, obviously, and many refinements have been made in terms of emissions. Finally, a major obstable in fueled engines is the low operating temperatures. There has been a lot of interest in ceramic engines that will be able to operate at much higher temperatures, and thus higher efficiencies.
The fuel-cell concept is years off (if it is viable at all) and the gas-electric hybrids get the same economy as small gas engines, and have the added environmental impact of lots of batteries.
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