Prius Outdoes Hummer in Environmental Damage

[henk4]

can we try to stay on topic for a change?

[Ferrer]

Quite mixed. I start off with a piece of 60 km/h then 80 for a while (total 15 km). When I turn onto the highway i stay on it for 40 km's then i turn of into the city with many traffic lights and a max. speed of 50 again.

That's impressive. Getting just above 4l/100km in a petrol car in this kind of driving conditions is astonishing.

[Zorlox]

That new EPA testing method sounds dumb. Why would the highway speed be higher than speed limits? Most highways around here are 55mph, at least near cities, and 65mph once you get aways out; 80 mph sounds a bit excessive. So does the 8mph/sec acceleration, which the prius can't do (at least average from 0-60). Other than that the article was interesting, but they failed to mention how the new testing affects the hummers and every other car out there. I thought it was unfair to act as though the prius is the only reason that nickel is mined, especially since nickel is used in chrome plating the obnoxious wheels and grills on the hummers they were comparing the prius to.
Last note, is anyone really going to put 300k miles on their hummer? The majority of people I know upgrade after about 100k, but then again, 80% of statistics are made up on the spot.

[Kitdy]

Someone finally hit the nail on the head. My pal told me about this phenomenon earlier: the so called "green cars" and "green ways". I am all for the environment. In a perfect world, we wouldn't need cars at all and we would have much less pollution, etc etc - but we have to realize that we are all a little selfish.

The point is, many so-called green methods are very dirty as well as the energy put into making them is very environmentally damaging - where does the energy to make the battery come from? A coal power plant. What it ultimately boild down to - and what those that are not scientific cannot see is where the route of the energy comes from. The nickel mine in Sudbury (Sudbury sucks btw and I have never been there) is only a fraction of the problem. I don't know the hard stats, but i'd bet that the energy expended to make a car like a Prius is much greater than that of say, a Kia. The point is, our primary energy sources are all dirty and this filters down to lower levels.
So - the ultimate most important goal is for green powerplants - that would make green cars hopefully more feasible and we also need straight up as an entire race to conserve - but the question is is anyone of us really willing to cut back in our daily lives signifigantly to help the envieronment? Time will tell.

[h00t_h00t]

The 100k hummer won't just disappear, it'll get sold on to someone else.

[coolieman1220]

Yay!! Eat That Tree Huggers!

[092326001]

Top Gear awarded the new S-class as the most enviromentally friendly car thanks to it's environmentally friendly production

[coolieman1220]

it also said the new 911 Turbo 997 is really clean. in LA it would put out cleaner air then it puts into its engine.

[Prius]

I have to admit, that is some real ownage towards Toyota. THey have been really pushing the Hybrid plate lately. I kinda do think as of lately that the Hybrids are over rated. They don't get their precieved milage, and a large sedan with a diesel engine can get their milage. Of course they will never be sold here in passenger cars though, we can thank Cadillac for that.

[Egg Nog]

As if people are just going to junk their Priuses after 100,000 miles.

Still, simplicity and small diesels are the way to go for economical cars.

[Ferrer]

Top Gear awarded the new S-class as the most enviromentally friendly car thanks to it's environmentally friendly production

No they didn't. What they did is say in the S-class film that some german organisation had said that as a package the S-class was more evironmentally friendly than the Toyota Prius.

[drakkie]

As if people are just going to junk their Priuses after 100,000 miles.

Well I heard that the cost of replacing the batteries is half(!!) the new price. So with the depreciation on the car, it would make it uneconomical...

[Matra et Alpine]

As if people are just going to junk their Priuses after 100,000 miles.

Warranty runs out at 100L, so may be sensible to do so.
IIRC the original batteries were "lab tested" to last 150K miles.
Given the replacement cost and the difficulty of disposal fo the old ones I wouldn't want to be the owner when it came around !!!!
Anyone seen any figures on real world usage now they've been aroudn for a while ??

[Egg Nog]

Warranty runs out at 100L, so may be sensible to do so.
IIRC the original batteries were "lab tested" to last 150K miles.
Given the replacement cost and the difficulty of disposal fo the old ones I wouldn't want to be the owner when it came around !!!!
Anyone seen any figures on real world usage now they've been aroudn for a while ??

They use them as taxis here. Toyota bought one of them back at over 300,000kms so they could study it (and gave the cabby a free 2nd generation model). Now I doubt that's a typical figure, but still, not half bad.

(Found a link - looks like there's one around here with over 400,000kms as well)

http://www.hybridexperience.ca/Toyota_Prius.htm (Taxi information is near the bottom)

[Mäusekino]

By the way, my alto is greener than a Prius according to this ! I get 60-65 mpg in daily traffic with almost constant overdrive and almost no acceleration... Cruise control helps a lot too.

you're driving a Suzi Alto? you must have to live a very poor and boring life...
...at least in terms of driving

...In a perfect world, we wouldn't need cars at all...

that would be a very poor world, imagine it: no ferraris, no pagani zonda, no merc sl gullwing, no bugattis & Lambos and so on
kitdy you make my eyes wet

it also said the new 911 Turbo 997 is really clean. in LA it would put out cleaner air then it puts into its engine.

i've never been in L.A. nor have i eve breathed the exhaust gas of the new turbo (or of any other car ) but i guess that was a joke

...Of course they will never be sold here in passenger cars though, we can thank Cadillac for that.

why will hybrids never be sold in motown? and what's got cadillac to do with that?

They use them as taxis here. Toyota bought one of them back at over 300,000kms so they could study it (and gave the cabby a free 2nd generation model). Now I doubt that's a typical figure, but still, not half bad.

(Found a link - looks like there's one around here with over 400,000kms as well)

wouldn't surprise me if Toyota shifted the mileage-counter a bit