Quote:
Originally Posted by tumnasgt
It's a fact that more resources go into making a hybrid than a standard car, how much more they use is hard to tell because no one has done a proper study.
I am surprised that Toyota hasn't funded research to counter the Hummer rubbish considering how much damage it did (I don't know about other countries, but here it got a lot of coverage, and a lot of people now think their V8 SUVs are better for the environment).
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CNW Marketing generated a widely discredited report due to some severe errors in expected vehicle life-time. However, they were quoted on the amount of energy needed to produce different cars in this news report:
Takes more energy to make a hybrid than it does an SUV | The San Diego Union-Tribune
Quote:
. . .
The study also found that the energy to produce that hybrid is 30 percent greater than the industry average to produce any vehicle.
Specifically, the Accord hybrid needs 144 percent more energy to produce than the industry average, Prius 142 percent more, and the Civic hybrid 141 percent more.
But the Suburban and Yukon took 137 percent, Expedition 134 percent, Hummer H2 132 percent, Tahoe 128 percent, Escalade 120 percent and Navigator 114 percent. And that Accord hybrid tops its gasoline-only counterpart in energy use.
A regular Accord, for example, requires 95 percent more energy to produce than the average vehicle, while the Accord hybrid requires 144 percent, or nearly 50 percent more than the gas version.
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Now the usual response by hybrid skeptics is to propose 'setting ones hair on fire and jumping off the nearest building.'
There are more credible reports that:
The consistent flaw in the CNW Marketing report was to cut every hybrid's expected life-time and annual mileage while showing the huge, SUVs as driving exceptional miles for double the life-time of the hybrids.
Reading the CNW Marketing report, if a family had a hybrid Camry and a gas Camry, they would choose to drive the less fuel efficient, gas Camry more than the hybrid. So do the mind experiment and walk to your driveway with a gas and hybrid equivalent vehicle . . . Only in a CNW Marketing world would you want to spend more money on fuel and take the less efficient vehicle.
Currently, my NHW11, 2003 Prius, has over 130,000 miles. Earlier this year, I helped replace the traction battery of a 2001 Prius with 250,000 miles ($1,700 built using battery modules from salvage Prius.) The highest mileage, NHW11 Prius in the USA had 350,000 miles when a Buick T-boned it in an intersection. It had never had the battery replaced and the transaxle oil had only been replaced at 300,000 miles.
Believing hybrid skeptics is like chastity, its own reward . . . and punishment.
Bob Wilson