[01:32] <cmaloney> Evening
[02:33] <dzho> plug-in diesel, eh?
[02:34] <dzho> I've been wondering when that would be done.
[02:34] <dzho> More of a mystery to me is why urban fleet vehicles aren't going over to hybrid more.
[02:35] <dzho> lots of low-speed, high-torque, short-distance, high-idle driving there.
[02:35] <dzho> city buses, school buses, UPS/FedEX/USPS, they should all be going to hybrid like great gangbusters.
[02:36] <dzho> or, pure electric
[02:37]  * dzho is unclear as to what the difference would be between a passat SW or a Golf SW
[02:38] <dzho> or a jetta SW for that matter
[02:38] <dzho> ISTR there have recently been passat wagons
[02:38]  * dzho has the 2011 jetta Sw
[05:59] <greg-g> all of the buses in SF are hybrid or all electric
[05:59] <greg-g> and a bunch of the cabs are too
[14:20] <dzho> that sounds more like a poltical decision than a business one, though.  I'm trying to figure out why, as a business decision, this isn't being done more at the fleet level.
[14:22] <cmaloney> dzho: Because replacing a fleet can be expensive
[14:23] <cmaloney> I think they're waiting until the current fleet falls completely apart.
[14:23] <dzho> the big operators I mention are so big that they must be doing replacements on an almost continuous basis
[14:23] <dzho> at least, frequently
[14:24] <dzho> and their fuel bills must be huge
[14:24] <dzho> I suppose they are tied into futures contracts in a big way, but . . . it's not like hybrids haven't been a thing now for a decade at least
[14:25] <dzho> by the way, the US Today that comes as part of our local paper here did a review of the electric Golf
[14:25] <dzho> mentioned that the Jetta Sportswagen was renamed to the Golf Sportswagen to a) capitalize on the popularity of that name here and b) to better reflect its origins
[14:26] <cmaloney> Nice.
[14:26]  * dzho recalls that VW has done some weird things with their cross-atlantic branding, eg, the Golf in Europe was first called the Rabbit here.
[14:26] <cmaloney> I wonder too if there's a training cost for the maint. folks.
[14:26] <cmaloney> and if that is somehow prohibitive.
[14:27] <dzho> death by a thousand cuts, yeah.
[14:27] <dzho> well, and now you have UPS advertizing on NPR about how they are green because they are using natural gas
[14:27] <dzho> which has so many things going on with it that I literally can't even
[14:28] <cmaloney> Yeah, Ford was big on propane for fleet vehicles
[14:28] <cmaloney> not sure if they still are.
[14:28] <cmaloney> bbl
[18:09] <cmaloney> Afternoon
[18:09] <cmaloney> reminder: We have our meeting tomorrow at 9pm