2005年NPR美国国家公共电台四月-'Consumer Reports' Gives Hybrid Car Its T

On Mondays, we report on the business of technology.

Record oil prices and record gas prices are inspiring some Americans to rethink the technology they use in their transportation. People who must drive do have alternatives to the gasguzzling SUV and in fact the number of alternatives is growing. To learn more, we call David Champion, the senior director of Auto 1 Testing for Consumer Reports. That magazine gave its top rating to a new model of hybrid 2 cars - part gas, part electric. It beat out a number of conventional sedans.

It's the new Honda Accord hybrid. And it's the first time we've seen a hybrid vehicle really go mainstream 3. The family sedan category is the biggest selling category in the United States. And it's the biggest category that we test. Previously 4 we've seen hybrid vehicles relatively 5 small, somewhat slower types of vehicles getting excellent gas mileage 6. But here we have normal five-passenger family sedan that gets 25 miles per gallon which is good, but also has a rather startling acceleration 7.

The EPA onetime was predicting that hybrid cars would consistently have 50 miles-per-gallon ratings. Is that happening?

No, I think people are looking at hybrid technology in different ways. The balancing, the act between more power and better fuel economy.

There's a lot of talk about car companies putting out hydrogen cell technology, not this year, next year, but maybe a decade from now. A hydrogen fuel cell works, how, exactly?

Basically you take hydrogen gas, mix it with air that contains oxygen. And when the hydrogen, the oxygen mix, it gives off electricity. That electricity is like a battery, and that powers an electric motor which drives the vehicle. They're very impressive to drive around the streets. The big issue is the storage of hydrogen and how you refuel it, and how you build up an infrastructure 8 to refuel these vehicles.

David Champion could you give us your very well-educated guess here, of what kind of car do you think you'll be driving in ten years?

In ten years, I think there will be some hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and they're mainly for fleet use. So maybe buses and taxi cabs and things like that. I think we're gonna see many more hybrid vehicles. And we're gonna see much more work done in reducing the weights of the vehicles that we drive, you know, the big heavy SUVs that are currently on the road. A lot of that energy that you're using is dragging that weight along and accelerating that weight.

David Champion is a senior director of Auto Testing for Consumer Reports. Thanks very much.

My pleasure, thank you.