IMHO the future will be a diesel plug in electric prius. The car will have a heated fuel tank for using veggie oil. The car will have a way to regulate fuel temperature allowing the ride to take full advantage of bio fuels that may be produced using alge. I also believe the prius will make an incredible contribution to those that wish to full time on a budget. Prius-based Camp-inn Relax Cabin revealed the car calls itself relax cabin and it is best to let them describe the ride to you. It is not a stretch of the imagination to see a car with a heat exchanger to provide heated water for both warmth inside cabin and also to warm water for showers. We are ready for a 44 mpg camper with the job market the way it is people can find themselves in a bind real quick some exiting college have money for one thing at a time not all of it. With this ride a student can start college with this car live in it and have a great resource to forge ahead. When we are young we are most prone to be nomadic it is then when the need for a camper style car is needed. A car is necessary most places and if you can combine car with a great place to sleep you have perfect recipe to become a financial success. I can see this ride have solar panels potentially towing a solar panel trailer to fully charge the battery using just sun light if needed. Sure it takes just 3 hours to get a green 10 miles I believe the car of the future will have 2x battery capacity and able to go 20 miles every 3 hours charge. Some full timers drive just like that they drive a ways then park to see a sight then drive another 20 doing maybe 50 miles a day. This system just needs some dedicated people to work on this and the future will become automotive history. People could rent parking spots that have water and power but they need to make these spots affordable. Overcharging is not going to attract people to this only forward thinking people that will charge affordable reasonable rates will facilitate this lifestyle. We have way too many people suffering from this economy this sort of vehicle is sorely needed and if designed properly will be lightweight, efficient, and most of all functional. I am surprised toyota is not using propane LNG with their plug in electric prius it would be the first quad fueled commercially vehicle if you employed solar panels in your mix. Sure LNG does not get as good MPG per gallon but the fuel does not have the taxes per gallon gasoline does. Think about it the electric propulsion is the torque leader then the ICE with propane would just be kicking in to maintain or do mild acceleration. Design the system where the tank is removed just like the forklifts etc fuel can be purchased at the grocery store? Also one could have a larger tank at home where they could transfer fuel to the smaller tanks. This would allow the owner to take advantage of better prices when market fluctuations arise.
Using a diesel in a hybrid really isn't productive as long as disel fuel costs 25% more than gasoline. While diesel is more eonomical on mpg its added weight, complexity and slowness are not good attributes unless the vehicle weight exceeds 3000 lb. Then the new Honda Accord hybrid sedan is rated at 50 mpg (true, see AN) which matches the C so perhaps Hondas 3 stage hybrid might make diesels more attractive. If the Porsche 918 plug-in charger that takes 30 minutes tops is adopted then plug-ins will be very useful. a vehicle big enough to live in ain't going to get 40 mpg either unless its sitting still with the engine off. as for propane or LNG its too wieldyand complex to use.
Welcome to Prius Chat...we don't have too many from LA (I mean that LA). Why veggie oil? It's easy to convert it to biodiesel or even regular diesel with advanced processing. Medium term future (2025) we see hybrid or diesel to meet US CAFE MPG requirements. Re: camping you can already get several tents designed to fit on back of a Prius
The cost per mile will likely be equal between diesel and gasoline. Same with between regular and premium. Like the other attributes people picture from diesel's past, they are not slow. Mazda won a race with their diesel 6 not too long ago. Audi also has diesel race cars. The new BMW 328d has a published 0-60mph time of 7.4 seconds. That's the slower diesel they offer. The Volvo plug in diesel sold well enough that they had to expand production.
Hmmm using veggie oil? All those billions of cars using billions and billions of litres of food oil? I don't think it's sustainable.
