Eric Massa wanted to drive a hydrogen fuel cell car from NY to his swearing in in DC. Hydrogen fuel cell cars go 200 miles on a charge, but DC is 300 miles from his district. Shades of Auto CEOs taking private jets to Congress to ask for help. FAIL:
Massa drove one fuel cell car while a hybrid SUV [Chevy Tahoe] towing an additional SUV followed along. Once he got half way, he switched to new fuel cell car [which I assume was towed to the half way point sometime earlier so that it would be waiting for the environmentally-conscious congressman]. The empty fuel cell was then towed back by the first SUV. As he continued on his journey, the second SUV followed. Once Massa arrived in DC, the second SUV then towed the second fuel cell car back to NY.
(Via Boing Boing)
He drove 1 SUV 300 miles (150 of which was towing another SUV), another SUV 150 miles (towing a fuel cell car) and 2 fuel cell cars 150 miles each so he could arrive in DC in one of the fuel cell cars?
Let’s be generous to the SUVs and say they roll at 20 mpg on the highway (even if they’re towing another SUV or a car, which is being especially generous), that’s 450 miles of SUV or 22.5 gallons of gas at 20miles/gallon, plus, let’s say the equivalent of 100mpg in the fuel cell cars over 300 miles that’s 3 more gallons for a total of 25.5 gallons. If towing another vehicle cuts the SUV mileage by 6mpg (VERY generous), then the total jumps to 35.6 gallons.
If he’d driven my 1996 Corolla it would have been 8.3 gallons, so he could have drive there and back twice for less fuel.
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This is a smart comment right here. Thanks!
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Math error: The SUV’s didn’t tow something for the whole 450 miles of combined driving, only 300.
So the total with adjusted mileage for towing is 300/14 + 150/20 + 300/100 = ~32 gallons. If you drove the corolla carefully you could make the round trip 2x on that.
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