Blogging will be light over the next week as I’ll be a-travelling. And without a laptop.
A number of folks in my small borough have bought Priuses over the last few years — I see about five of them on my short walk to the train in the morning. One even has a little decal over the back window that says “Breath Free, Drive A Prius” (right next to this family’s other car, an old beater with a Dennis Kucinich ’08 sticker). Smug snots, aside from the Kucinich sticker.
With most hybrids, the air might be cleaner, but it could be at the expense of the water and soil. The nickel in its batteries are the main culprits — the mining of nickel and disposal of nickel-based batteries contributes to serious pollution around the globe. And, with an increasing demand for battery power, that’s only going to increase. (I suspect lithium-ion batteries might cause similar damage, but I don’t know.)
Anyway, this article from Bloomberg goes along with what I’ve been saying: with most hybrids, it is more about perception than substance. You aren’t saving money with a Prius. Buy a cheap subcompact with good gas mileage for half the price and you’ll likely never buy enough gas to make up the difference. Given that Prius mileage isn’t as good as advertised, you aren’t going to be producing that much more CO2, either.
It is more about affluence at this point. Even though the technology is expensive now, it will change eventually as hybrids become more acceptable to the market and cheaper to build. I still have hope for more nuke plants and more Teslas, but that’s just me.
What we need is the Automotive X Prize to work, pushing the creation of a 100 mpg production car.
Anyway, a quick rant. I’m sure I’ll be eaten alive in the comments.