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GM vs. Toyota. (Taken from Autoextremist) It's on. You didn't think Toyota would actually sit idly by and let GM take shots at its Teflon Kimono (in a lovely shade of Green, of course) with the Chevrolet Volt, did you? Toyota announced today that it has developed a plug-in hybrid vehicle that will be put into public road tests in Japan, with plans for eventual tests in the U.S. and Europe. Toyota is the first manufacturer to receive government approval to conduct tests for its plug-in hybrid - the Toyota Plug-in HV - on Japanese public roads (we bet that took a lot of arm twisting by Toyota, no?), and they'll collect information about the tests from eight plug-in vehicles for the government about emissions and fuel efficiency. Plans for plug-in hybrid tests for the U.S. and Europe are still in flux. GM hopes its Volt can reach showrooms by 2010. This is shaping up to be the knock-down heavyweight championship fight in automotive history, with the two companies' reputations - and GM's future - on the line.

Quote, originally posted by K-NINE »Toyota is the first manufacturer to receive government approval to conduct tests for its plug-in hybrid - the Toyota Plug-in HV - on Japanese public roads You do mean only in Japan it has been granted approval, cause in the U.S. the EV1 was the first car put into approval as a plug in.

then ford had a ranger..honda had a crv or something suv like..and there i thought might of been 1 more...but most got destroyed... nice huh? soooo Im still wondering why its so hard for a car company to just put together a EV car before 2010..i mean...huh..they still have the spec sheets you'd think or did they burn them up..to cover up the EV hahha its just rediculous how small companies will be coming out with better EV's that are already sold out than the ones.

Quote, originally posted by Whelan »You do mean only in Japan it has been granted approval, cause in the U.S. the EV1 was the first car put into approval as a plug in. I assume that the author is referring to Japan.I don't see what is taking GM so long getting an electric car out there. I thought the EV1 was successful. I read articles about people begging to keep their EV1's when GM recalled them.

exactly k-nine! I dont get why GM or ford doesnt just take the plans and update them to a new platform. The ranger would be a nice 4x4 ev and a cobalt ev would be nice for a smaller ev car. Yeah they cost a little more if they use lith ion batteries but people will buy them. And if they use nickle h. batteries you just cant go as far...and they used those in the EV1 and the those age ev's.....no sense to me...none.

I honestly think GM and ford should play around with gearing, as well as the motors if they wanna do out japaneese automakers. If we can get 34 mpg highway out of a 2006 Z06 then there is no reason they can't get more MPG out of the cars already get outstanding milage. Gearing plays a huge part in gas milage, thats why the corvettes get such terrific milage.

Quote, originally posted by tangerine »I honestly think GM and ford should play around with gearing, as well as the motors if they wanna do out japaneese automakers. If we can get 34 mpg highway out of a 2006 Z06 then there is no reason they can't get more MPG out of the cars already get outstanding milage. Gearing plays a huge part in gas milage, thats why the corvettes get such terrific milage.I'm being dumb here I guess, I don't know much about the Vette and it's gearing, but could you explain how a Corvette's gearing gives it better mileage. Not being a jerk, I really wanna know cause I figured if they were setup for performance that mileage would not come into play.

i believe he's referring to the low final gear which allows the vette to travel at high speeds if you're cruising at 70 in it there's not much load on the engine. and it doesn't have to run as high RPM to get to that speed.

Quote, originally posted by joholste »i believe he's referring to the low final gear which allows the vette to travel at high speeds if you're cruising at 70 in it there's not much load on the engine. and it doesn't have to run as high RPM to get to that speed.Aaaaaah now it makes sense I'm sittin here scratchin my head goin "how does a Vette get better mileage than my Trix in 1st gear?" lol