ORIGINAL: tupperware
they dont mix YET... they hybrid folks want to save fuel and decrease emissions, the pony car folks want power at any cost..check out the Tesla or do a google search on biodiesel engines...mega HP and Torque..
we'll get there, technology just has to catch up with our needs and wants...prime example...20 years ago, who wanted a diesel pickup truck? Now (at least before diesel fuel hit $4), the big 3 sold a ton of them...
Diesels are a completely different category. I've a powerful diesel is offered in the Challenger, I will be very tempted by that. Being a marketer, I've studied this stuff and the muscle car audience is more likely to go with a diesel. There was a Wall Street Journal article named something along the lines of "Toyota tries to sell hybrids where tractors are sexy," where they were trying to sell hybrids to people in the midwest and south by having display stands at NASCAR tracks and although they were able to convince some people to buy hybrids, many responded that they would rather have a diesel.
Also the reason why people go with Diesel trucks more today than they did 20 years ago is the fact that the diesel offerings today a significantly more competitive and desirable than the ones made 20 years ago. Back 20 years ago, the output of GM's Diesel a 6.2L engine produced about 143hp & 257ft-lbs of tq (the 2.8L VM Motori I4 diesel offered in the 05 Liberty produced more than this just to show you how far things have come in 20 years) and those engines were difficult to start and weren't the most reliable powertrains. They were so low on torque that they not only didn't compete against the Big Blocks that they even had trouble fighting against the small block V8's torque and the V6 models hp. The current diesels not only get better fuel economy than small block models, but they produce close to 200ft-lbs of tq more than the big block offerings and they have made diesels much quieter, easier to start, smell less, and many other advantages. That is why diesels have caught on.
The tesla is NOT a muscle car, it is a sports car. Sports car fans are not quite as picky as muscle/pony car fans so take that into the equation. If pony car fans are so ready to take a more fuel efficient approach to getting the power, then how come they constantly complain about V6 offerings despite the fact that V6 offerings today are faster than many V8 offerings of the original cars, and why did they resist the SVO Mustang from the 80s that was faster than the 5.0L V8 versions of the Mustang? I'm not saying that there might be a day when these things change, but don't expect it to work currently is what I'm saying.
davecpa, what is the projected fuel economy on that Eclipse out of curosity?