Experimental Hybrid Cars Get Up to 250 Mpg

LiveScience.com - Experimental Hybrid Cars Get Up to 250 Mpg:

University of California, Davis engineering professor Andy Frank built a plug-in hybrid from the ground up in 1972 and has since built seven others, one of which gets up to 250 mpg. They were converted from non-hybrids, including a Ford Taurus and Chevrolet Suburban.

Frank has spent $150,000 to $250,000 in research costs on each car, but believes automakers could mass-produce them by adding just $6,000 to each vehicle's price tag.

Instead, Frank said, automakers promise hydrogen-powered vehicles hailed by President Bush and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, even though hydrogen's backers acknowledge the cars won't be widely available for years and would require a vast infrastructure of new fueling stations.

“They'd rather work on something that won't be in their lifetime, and that's this hydrogen economy stuff,” Frank said. “They pick this kind of target to get the public off their back, essentially.”

BushCo and Friends could never get us off of oil. That's like the pusher promising to get the junky off of heroin; not gonna happen!