GM Plans Plug-In Hybrid

We don’t normally cover industry news that won’t impact consumers in the near future, but this is really intriguing. GM is investing some of the money it’s saving from massive cost cutting back into green technologies. One of its projects includes a plug-in hybrid car that will allow owners to recharge the battery at any standard electric outlet. The car will run on the electric motor until the battery expires, then switch to a gasoline engine, thus making it a hybrid. This is considerably different from current hybrid technology, which allows a car to start from a standing stop and maneuver at low speeds using electric power, then switches to the gasoline engine when more speed or performance is needed.

The project is called the “I-car,” and we’ll admit to our surprise at the news. We’ll warn you, though, that these projects often don’t come to fruition and we wouldn’t be surprised if some other technology or trend came along to divert the research.   

[GM to Use Cost Savings to Fight Toyota `Green' Cars, People Say, Bloomberg.com]

Comments

If anyone has any reason to believe this has serious merit, please see the below link. While it is true that there is some clean energy, one must carefully consider whether we are even really coming out ahead with this. Thank you.

http://www.cartalk.com/content/rant/r-rlast22.html

John's link points up some comments that are true, not only of electric-powered vehicles, but of ethanol and biodiesel as well. The energy used to produce these two, and in the case of ethanol the reduced fuel economy, detract from their benefit.

I think the pollution of electricity could be reduced by building more atomic-powered generating stations, but they have their own problems. We still haven't figured out what to do with the atomic waste.

Current issue: March 7, 2007 Central Connecticut State University Editorial & Commentary
Prius Outdoes Hummer in Environmental Damage By Chris Demorro Staff Writer

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.

Copyright © 2002, The Recorder | All Rights Reserved

Hehe thats freakin awsome, Stupid prius, I should print this and show it to my prius drooling teacher, lol. GMs chevy volt will blow that shoe box off the road next year...

Hey Erik,
If you buy that article, I've got a house I'm trying to flip - 2 brs for only 1.2 million. It's fun to read all the BS that people were troweling about hybrid cars in 2002 and the lack of understanding of what they even were and how they work. Today, Hummer is history and there are well over a million Prii's on the road and consumers will have more than 40 hybrids and clean diesels to choose from to save gas in 2010. It's disgusting that a college paper would reprint such garbage as late as 2007, and that anyone would be stupid enough to buy into it today after our nation's experience with $4.00 per gallon gas. Kind of skews the cost arguments in the article doesn't it?