Driving around Nevada County, with its hills and mountains, consumes a lot more gasoline then driving in the valley. Look at this road sign, 31 percent grade! This sign is on Banner Quaker Hill Road. While most of the roads in Nevada County are not that steep, it gives us an idea of why it takes more fuel to get around here. I own a Prius, a hybrid electric gas vehicle, which averages 44 to 47 miles per gallon of gas in the mountains. In the valley, the Prius gets from 48 to 52 miles per gallon.

Sign at the start of 31 percent grade, Banner Quaker Hill Road

With gas reaching $4.00 a gallon, and no end in sight as to how high its going to cost, I really truly like my car. I also have a Chevy Silverado four wheel drive truck. It gets around 11 miles to the gallon. Doing some quick math, its amazing the difference in fuel costs.

Banner Quaker Hill Road

I drive 22,000 miles per year. The Prius uses 500 gallons of gas at 44 miles per gallon per year. The Chevy uses 2000 gallons of gas at 11 miles per gallon per year. At $4.00 per gallon, the Prius fuel cost is $2,000 and the Chevy fuel cost is $8,000. That’s a savings of $500 per month using the Prius. Needless to say, I only drive the Chevy when I have to!

The price of gas is not going to come down with China, India, Thailand and related countries developing so rapidly. Don’t blame the gas companies for high costs, instead blame all of the dinosaur SUV‘s, muscle cars and trucks that are gas guzzlers. Fuel consumption could be reduced 30 to 50 percent or more if we all bought fuel efficient vehicles.

The amazing thing is that most of what we require a car to do uses only a small percentage of its horsepower. When you are driving along the freeway at 60 mph (96.6 kph), your car engine has to provide the power to do three things:
———Overcome the aerodynamic drag caused by pushing the car through the air
———Overcome all of the friction in the car’s components such as the tires, transmission, axles and brakes
——- Provide power for accessories like air conditioning, power steering and headlights

For most cars, doing all this requires less than 20 horsepower. So, why do you need a car with 200 horsepower? So you can “floor it,” which is the only time you use all that power. The rest of the time, you use considerably less power than you have available.

Prius Hybrid

Here’s how it works in the Prius. When you are stopped, the gas engine is not running, therefore no pollution. When you start from a dead stop, the electric motor powers the car. Permanent Magnet AC motors/generators provide excellent torque, so they’re perfectly suited to get you off the line. When you reach about 15 miles per hour under normal acceleration, or when you step on the gas for hard acceleration, the four-cylinder gasoline engine kicks in—seamlessly—and takes you to whatever speed you want to attain. At highway speeds, the Prius runs entirely on the engine, unless additional power is needed, in which case the electric motor kicks in to add additional power for passing or hill climbing. But you never have to think about it; it’s all computer controlled. And you never have to plug it in to recharge it. Whenever you step on the brakes or decelerate, the electric battery is charged. Therefore you are conserving some of the energy that you have used to power the car.

John O’Dell is a licensed general contractor, real estate broker, civil engineer and land surveyor