Toyota's Prius, you just gotta love it

Quote:

---

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.

---

gotta love Toyota's Prius now, eh?


[pulled from this place]

My dad has a much less-known hybrid, and it's in fact the most fuel efficient car in the United States.
"According to the EPA, ... Insight was the most fuel-efficient mass-produced automobile sold in the United States...."

"The Insight earned an EPA mileage estimate of 70 miles per gallon in highway driving, 61 mpg city."

It's not the best looking car ever, but he drives quite a bit to work every day, so he loves it.
(People always ask him how many mpg it gets, and how long you have to plug it in :P)
Photo:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...a--Insight.jpg

How much does it hold (in gallons)

I think 13 let me look it up
Edit: only 10.6

Still not bad.....

He goes about 650 miles on one tank.

Wow, I might have to get one of those...

Pretty sure it's discontinued =\ (last year -> 2007)
The oil companies paid up for them to not advertise it while it was being produced, and now to have made Honda stop making them
EDIT: My bad, 2006 actually :(
From wikipedia:
Production 1999-2006
Seriously, what the hell? It was the most fuel efficient car in the US.

If they kept it hush hush... It can't be that hard to copy it.

This country is going nowhere. We make something revolutionary then the guys making all the money from oil make sure it doesn't spread. Good ideas go unnoticed.

Thats technically illegal. Its a cartel and they are illegal in the U.S. and the U.K. (among other places)

well if I was rich, I'd sure pay someone to make sure I stayed rich

So? The entire oil industry is ridiculous. The rich stay rich and the poor stay poor. Nobody gives a **** about the environment. As long as people can stay rich until their life is over then they don't give a **** about the future.

Indeed. Mind you I all ready worked out the solution to the Oil problem.

This solution:
Provides Limitless Oil
Does No harm to the environment.
Will reduce carbon dioxide levels to 0 within a decade.
Edit: Is economically viable and could be run as a buisness

but I can't say it because obviously I'm not yet old enough to publish my discovery and take the credit for it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Area51_Hacker2

Provides Limitless Oil

---

I don't see how that's possible...

I highly doubt someone of your intelligence level has solved possibly the world's biggest problem.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vash

I highly doubt someone of your intelligence level has solved possibly the world's biggest problem.

---

As do I...

I just asked my dad and he said he fills it to over 12 gallons.
Online it says 10.6, but he fills it up until he can see it coming out :p

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vash

I highly doubt someone of your intelligence level has solved possibly the world's biggest problem.

---

Hahaha! Oh man that one made me laugh for a while :lol:

It's really very simple. The only reason we haven't developed it yet is that with current oil prices its just too expensive (relatively speaking) it will become economically viable as soon as it becomes to expensive to mine/drill for oil.

ethanol? XD

by the way, if that is your plan, it's not smart, it takes more energy to create a gallon of ethanol than the energy it produces.

Quote:

---

it takes 29 percent more fossil energy to turn corn into ethanol than the amount of fuel the process produces

---

No not ethanol..... The system runs on solar energy.....

oh phew, ethanol is a stupid idea :P

solar energy could be good in some ways, but the problem is when we get the sun blocked off by all our nuclear fallout XP

They'll be no Nuclear fallout with my system......

if your planning to cover 50% of the u.s. in photocells,it will be imposible to maintian

I love the way that you assume I want to cover the u.s. in .... what did you call them? "Photocells" woooooo! No that is not the plan.....

you presented insignificant data for me to make an accurate guess <_<

photocells are what converts light energy into electrical energy in a solar panel,by the way

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Area51_Hacker2

They'll be no Nuclear fallout with my system......

---

No but all of the world's nukes will bring fallout :D

Yes but only if they are used........

yes,but its pretty much inevitable,with the immemnet conflict with oil shortages

:/

Hrrrm good point. On the other hand by that time the Oil price will be high enough for me to release my research.

thats pretty cool

[youtube:2mivyysm]Zyv3h_t-q-4[/youtube:2mivyysm]