Hybrid Vehicles: Environmentally Evil?
I was drawn into a debate the other day with one of my brothers my long standing argument that hybrid cars (such as the Prius) are not as environmentally friendly as both the car companies, hippies and media claim. I argued that although the burning of fossil-fuel is greatly reduced while the vehicle is operating, the overally environmental impact of the toxic batteries and the electric motor (both in manufacturing and disposal) has the potential to greatly outweigh the green operation of the vehicle.
Needless to say, this argument did not go over well. Without facts in hand, my brother rightly told me my argument had no merit. Today I went searching about buying a hybrid car for a future road trip, and accidentally came accross a dust-to-dust automotive energy study that details the energy cost of different vehicles from creation to disposal. Sure enough, the hybrid sector of the market appears to be above the average energy cost for a vehicle, at $3.180 per mile.
In fact, even entry level SUV's had a significantly lower energy cost, at $1.336 per mile. Cars similar in size (or larger) to the hybrids, listed as "Lower-Mid-Range" in the study show an average of $2.064/mile. Only the Luxury Car segment beats the price per mile of a hybrid.
According to this study, a Prius not only consumes 150% of the energy of a comparable size car, but also contains parts (such a Nickel Metal Hydride [NiMH] batteries) that will do harm years after the car is disposed of. This "eco-friendly" picture that has been painted onto the hybrid cars scream marketing scam to me. Surely one study does not completely prove the fact that the car is worse for the environment, but I would love to see more people (eg. newspapers) were to look into this and open up some level of debate.