Jul 20 2006
And a hybrid car is not a good thing?
This article from the Reason Foundation describes the Dust to Dust report from Art Spinella, the uber-auto analyst and President of CNW Marketing Research. Spinella looked at the total energy cost of vehicles, including design, manufacturing, transport, fuel usage, and disposal/recycling at the end of life.
Spinella’s findings put the energy cost per mile of a Honda Civic hybrid at $3.238/mile due to manufacturing costs of special alloys and components, shipping, disposal, and the short 100,000 mile lifespan (conception to scrap). Ironically, they put a Hummer at $1.949 due to commodity parts, US manufacture, basic steel, and a 300,000 mile lifespan. But even a ‘normal SUV’ comes out much better than Hybrid Civic or Toyota Prius. A regular Ford Escape comes in at a third less total energy cost than the hybrid Escape.
I’ve done a little digging, and the Reason Foundation seems to be a well regarded Libertarian think tank with pretty high credibility.
[...] If you find this interesting, check out my post earlier on another article on overall energy cost (dust to dust) of hybrid vehicles. [...]
How many people really think that owning a hybrid car will help the environment ? I mean look at all these hybrids here http://www.topgreencars.com/ would owning one really save a tree ?