A Bimmer Steamer? It could happen!
[quote]
December 14, 2005 A large percentage of the energy released when petroleum is burned disappears out the exhaust system as heat. This has always been the case but the amount of energy released looks set to be cut by more than 80% thanks to a new system devised by BMW. BMW
It should be a closed system than, otherwise you need to add water every 100 K or so …
They’ve had a prototype car with that sytem for over 50 years. It was only recently the aliens allowed them to devulge it to the public. Damn aliens.
No, it’s not because of the aliens, it’s because of the Japanese and their hybrid cars! To cover up the fact that they are years behind on this technology, German car makers are touting a new “superior” concept every few weeks: Volkswagen’s Ecoracer, BMW’s steam car, Mercedes’ diesel hybrid… In addition to that, there’s an article in a German car magazine or newspaper every few days about how hybrid cars suck badly when driving at a constant speed of 200 km/h on the Autobahn and about how the new will be so much better…
The problem is that of all of these wonderful cars, you can only buy the Japanese ones. Volkswagen just anounced that the Ecoracer was just a concept to show what’s possible and BMW’s steam cars won’t be around until 2015, if ever.
That’s really a shame, on the other hand German car makers have made bad experiences with eco-cars on the German market: The Volkswagen 3L Lupo (the “3L” stands for 3L/100km) and the Audi A2 where both failures. As the Spiegel wrote today, Smart, the only carmaker who’s cars meet the avarage consumption specified in the Kyoto protcol, has never made a profit and is likely to be shut down in two years. Porsche and BMW, which don’t offer a single car meeting the fleet consumption goals for 2008, are highly profitable.
In pictures:
Ecoracer: too expensive to go into mass production.
Turbosteamer: BMW estimates it will be available in 10 years.
Japanese hybrid cars: I’m gonna drive to the supermarket with this one later. 
[quote=“hypermegaglobal”]Japanese hybrid cars: I’m gonna drive to the supermarket with this one later. 
[/quote]Really? More details please!
I’m all for hybrid/greener vehicles where and when practical.
I read with interest about the world’s first fuel cell motorbike:
envbike.com/
fuelcellsworks.com/Supppage2251.html
Big sticker shock when the batteries die and need replacing…big $$$'s.
[quote=“joesax”]Really? More details please!
I’m all for hybrid/greener vehicles where and when practical.
[/quote]
More details about me going shopping? OK,… 
No, seriously, my GF and I bought the Prius two months ago after our 10 years old former car broke down repeatedly and started to cost a fortune to repair. So far, we’re very happy with our choice. The Prius is definitely not some crazy eco concept car without practical use. It’s large enough to travel with 4 people plus (some) luggage (done that), it’s powerful enough (the 400Nm torque from the electrical motor is quite impressive), very quiet in the city (not so much on the highway), fuel efficient and produces very low emissions.
For driving long distances on the highway, a car with a powerful diesel engine would’ve been the better choice, but for my driving pattern, the Prius is perfect. It would certainly be a good car for driving in Taiwan too. AFAIK, there’s only one Prius in Taiwan right now (somebody imported it from Japan), but I remember reading that Hotai (the Toyota and Lexus distributer for Taiwan) wants to start selling the Prius in 2006.
Some links:
Fuel Efficiency: How it works
Priuschat (probably contains answers to every possible question)
Let me know if you need more details. 
It comes with a 8 year warranty on all hybrid components (and 5 years on the rest of the car). I’m quite sure in 8 years there’ll be more advanced and cheaper batteries should they have to be replaced. Hey, maybe I’ll even by that steamer BMW then. I guesstimate the replacement of the entire battery right now would cost around 3500 EUR, which isn’t that much, considering the total costs of ownership of a car.
Here’s another interesting, er… vehicle which looks like it’s fuel saving, too, and even more fun to drive:
The Prius is lovely indeed. It will be interesting to see how this new Ford Escape hybrid does in Taiwan.
One word…
TRON!!!
[quote=“hypermegaglobal”]Here’s another interesting, er… vehicle which looks like it’s fuel saving, too, and even more fun to drive:
[/quote]
Thanks for the info, HMG!
That Carver thing looks like a lot of fun. Only gets 43 miles per (U.S.) gallon though.
Hiyall
I’ve heard speculation that water injection (which I believe is used mostly on highly boosted competition engines to stop them and/or their turbos from melting) also has a “steam-engine” effect, giving more (but cooler) gas volume and therefore more “push” to both pistons and turbo. Dunno how significant this is, if at all, but it sort of makes sense.
regds, ed lithgow