[Frost__2001]

Prius Outdoes Hummer in Environmental Damage
By Chris Demorro
Staff Writer @ motortrend.com

The Toyota Prius has become the flagship car for those in our society so environmentally conscious that they are willing to spend a premium to show the world how much they care. Unfortunately for them, their ultimate ‘green car’ is the source of some of the worst pollution in North America; it takes more combined energy per Prius to produce than a Hummer.
Before we delve into the seedy underworld of hybrids, you must first understand how a hybrid works. For this, we will use the most popular hybrid on the market, the Toyota Prius.

The Prius is powered by not one, but two engines: a standard 76 horsepower, 1.5-liter gas engine found in most cars today and a battery- powered engine that deals out 67 horsepower and a whooping 295ft/lbs of torque, below 2000 revolutions per minute. Essentially, the Toyota Synergy Drive system, as it is so called, propels the car from a dead stop to up to 30mph. This is where the largest percent of gas is consumed. As any physics major can tell you, it takes more energy to get an object moving than to keep it moving. The battery is recharged through the braking system, as well as when the gasoline engine takes over anywhere north of 30mph. It seems like a great energy efficient and environmentally sound car, right?

You would be right if you went by the old government EPA estimates, which netted the Prius an incredible 60 miles per gallon in the city and 51 miles per gallon on the highway. Unfortunately for Toyota, the government realized how unrealistic their EPA tests were, which consisted of highway speeds limited to 55mph and acceleration of only 3.3 mph per second. The new tests which affect all 2008 models give a much more realistic rating with highway speeds of 80mph and acceleration of 8mph per second. This has dropped the Prius’s EPA down by 25 percent to an average of 45mpg. This now puts the Toyota within spitting distance of cars like the Chevy Aveo, which costs less then half what the Prius costs.

However, if that was the only issue with the Prius, I wouldn’t be writing this article. It gets much worse.

Building a Toyota Prius causes more environmental damage than a Hummer that is on the road for three times longer than a Prius. As already noted, the Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. This plant has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has used the ‘dead zone’ around the plant to test moon rovers. The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles.

The plant is the source of all the nickel found in a Prius’ battery and Toyota purchases 1,000 tons annually. Dubbed the Superstack, the plague-factory has spread sulfur dioxide across northern Ontario, becoming every environmentalist’s nightmare.

“The acid rain around Sudbury was so bad it destroyed all the plants and the soil slid down off the hillside,” said Canadian Greenpeace energy-coordinator David Martin during an interview with Mail, a British-based newspaper.

All of this would be bad enough in and of itself; however, the journey to make a hybrid doesn’t end there. The nickel produced by this disastrous plant is shipped via massive container ship to the largest nickel refinery in Europe. From there, the nickel hops over to China to produce ‘nickel foam.’ From there, it goes to Japan. Finally, the completed batteries are shipped to the United States, finalizing the around-the-world trip required to produce a single Prius battery. Are these not sounding less and less like environmentally sound cars and more like a farce?

Wait, I haven’t even got to the best part yet.

When you pool together all the combined energy it takes to drive and build a Toyota Prius, the flagship car of energy fanatics, it takes almost 50 percent more energy than a Hummer - the Prius’s arch nemesis.

Through a study by CNW Marketing called “Dust to Dust,” the total combined energy is taken from all the electrical, fuel, transportation, materials (metal, plastic, etc) and hundreds of other factors over the expected lifetime of a vehicle. The Prius costs an average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles - the expected lifespan of the Hybrid.

The Hummer, on the other hand, costs a more fiscal $1.95 per mile to put on the road over an expected lifetime of 300,000 miles. That means the Hummer will last three times longer than a Prius and use less combined energy doing it.

So, if you are really an environmentalist - ditch the Prius. Instead, buy one of the most economical cars available - a Toyota Scion xB. The Scion only costs a paltry $0.48 per mile to put on the road. If you are still obsessed over gas mileage - buy a Chevy Aveo and fix that lead foot.

One last fun fact for you: it takes five years to offset the premium price of a Prius. Meaning, you have to wait 60 months to save any money over a non-hybrid car because of lower gas expenses.

Link to Article: http://clubs.ccsu.edu/recorder/editorial/p....asp?NewsID=188



I disagree with the writer on his comments about Sudbury, as I'm sure he's never been there, but this dose make a good point don't you think ?

[CanadaSVT]

Frost__2001,Apr 2 2007, 08:34 PM Wrote:[i]Prius Outdoes Hummer in Environmental Damage
The new tests which affect all 2008 models give a much more realistic rating with highway speeds of 80mph and acceleration of 8mph per second. This has dropped the Prius’s EPA down by 25 percent to an average of 45mpg. This now puts the Toyota within spitting distance of cars like the Chevy Aveo, which costs less then half what the Prius costs.

Building a Toyota Prius causes more environmental damage than a Hummer that is on the road for three times longer than a Prius. As already noted, the Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario.  The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles.

I disagree with the writer on his comments about Sudbury, as I'm sure he's never been there, but this dose make a good point don't you think ?
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25 years ago Sudbury was a mess and there was no plant life for miles. Not sure what it's like now. Not somewhere I'd choose to bring up my family.

Now I'm certainly not a Toyota enthusiast, but what mileage will the s***box Aveo get with the new EPA standards? I don't trust much of what a college or university article has to say.

[CanadaSVT]

Frost__2001,Apr 2 2007, 08:34 PM Wrote:[i]Prius Outdoes Hummer in Environmental Damage
By Chris Demorro
Staff Writer @ motortrend.com

Link to Article:  http://clubs.ccsu.edu/recorder/editorial/p....asp?NewsID=188 

I read this article and nowhere does it read 'Staff Writer @ motortrend.com'
Did you just add that?

[CanadaSVT]

A somewhat intelligent rebuttal:

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/03/08/hu...-dont-think-so/

"Here we go again, another writer putting out a story about the Hummer being greener than a Prius. Even Hummer manufacturer General Motors isn't foolish enough to try and make this absurd claim. It's not clear what the author's motivation is, but he might want to check some facts next time put clicking the publish button. The main evidence he references are the now debunked CNW research article that came out in 2006, that contained plenty of factual errors in their analysis of the manufacturing costs of the nickel metal hydride batteries and information about nickel producer Inco.

You can read Sebastian's follow up on the CNW study to get the skinny on that. The information on Inco is just plain outdated and wrong. Yes, Inco did a lot of probably irreparable damage to the area around Sudbury, Ontario over the many decades, and I will not defend them. The 1,247 foot tall Inco superstack definitely spread acid rain far and wide over eastern Canada for nearly two decades. However a major pollution control program was put in place in the late 1980s and since 1994, the stack has emitted almost nothing but water vapor. Most of the Ontario lakes that were damaged by acid rain in the 1970s and 1980s have since recovered and are now doing well.

Finally, the author references the changes to the EPA fuel economy ratings this year, and the fact that Prius ratings fall about 25 percent from 2007 to 2008. What he neglects to mention is that every vehicle for sale in the United States suffers a significant drop in the sticker fuel efficiency, including his precious Hummer. Admittedly, hybrids are not a panacea for our problems and they create problems of their own. But this article is just silly. You can find the article at the Read link, or just keep reading here."

[ZTWsquared]

CanadaSVT,Apr 2 2007, 09:53 PM Wrote:

Frost__2001,Apr 2 2007, 08:34 PM Wrote:[i]Prius Outdoes Hummer in Environmental Damage
By Chris Demorro
Staff Writer @ motortrend.com

Link to Article:  http://clubs.ccsu.edu/recorder/editorial/p....asp?NewsID=188  

I read this article and nowhere does it read 'Staff Writer @ motortrend.com'
Did you just add that?
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He's a staff writer (student) at the college ... and here's his followup article wherein he sort of explains where he got the info, and admits to the flaws in the original CNW Marketing study that formed the basis of his first article.

Chris Demorro's followup article.

[Frost__2001]

CanadaSVT,Apr 2 2007, 09:53 PM Wrote:

Frost__2001,Apr 2 2007, 08:34 PM Wrote:[i]Prius Outdoes Hummer in Environmental Damage
By Chris Demorro
Staff Writer @ motortrend.com

Link to Article:  http://clubs.ccsu.edu/recorder/editorial/p....asp?NewsID=188  

I read this article and nowhere does it read 'Staff Writer @ motortrend.com'
Did you just add that?
[right][snapback]232959[/snapback][/right]

I added the @ part because it was on Motortrend.com ie. just for the source of the article, like I generally add a source from news related articles from places like ctv.ca & the daily auto insider from car and driver. it said By Chris Demorro
Staff Writer when I copied and pasted it, and as I said above I added the @ thing for the source.

[darkpuppet]

while I don't believe that a prius is less envronmentally friendly than a hummer, I do agree that they are a LOT less environmentally friendly than many other alternatives out there.

for one, many diesel cars have better mileage numbers than all of the hybrids. And with low sulfur (and even biodiesel), there's even more reason to get a diesel.

secondly, the prius and other hybrids don't have much of a lifespan, and if you keep the car for any length of time, you're going to have to replace that battery... not only is the battery an environmental landmine, it's expensive...

Don't get me wrong, I think that what hybrids stand for is great, but it's not the solution to the problem... you're just building a throw-away vehicle that's going to add to the pollution problem in the long run.

just because it makes people feel karmic isn't a good enough reason to get one IMO.