What is the trade off for hybrid 'green cars'?

Question

Considering their alternative power comes from electricity, and electricity is produced by burning coal or produced by nuclear plants. Burnig coal and nuclear waste are hardly envirnmentally friendly. So are these hybrid cars really all that much better than regular cars just burning petrol??

You guys are right. I totally spaced out the fact they recharge themselves! Brainfart on my part!

Answer 1

They charge their own batteries, so there is NOT the problem with power plants.

The trade off with them is that they are very expensive, they don't get THAT much more mileage, and battery replacement is astronomical!!

Answer 2

Burning petrol produces greenhouse gases. Burning coal does the same. So you are probably right in that arena, especially since the average steam plant has an efficiency of around 30%, and a boiler efficiency of around 80% reducing the overall efficiency to around 24%. However, modern combined cycle plants burning natural gas have overall efficiencies of around 50% so the situation is improving.

Nuclear technology does not have the same scale of impact on the environment, and it is difficult to trade potential nuclear waste illegal dumping with guaranteed fossil fuel burning pollution, so the jury is still out on the nuclear thing.

What IS certain is that the hybrid technology will impact pollution levels favourably at street level which is where we will mostly benefit I suggest.

Answer 3

Huh? Hybrid cars do not use electricity generated by power plants; coal, nuclear, or otherwise. Hybrid cars generate their own electricity by recovering energy that would be wasted in a conventional car and using that energy to charge the batteries. Energy burned when braking for example.

Answer 4

you have a point, though, regardless of the batteries. Ultimately, these vehicles still use gas and spew carbon into the air. And because the planet's population is growing, even if we all switched to hybrids, in a few years, it wouldn't matter...we would still be contributing just as much to climate change. I really believe that vehicles that use no gasoline or any carbon based product is the best solution. Bio diesel, I think, is the fuel we should begin to switch to. Trucking industry could switch relatively easily. Here in Portland, OR, there are bio diesel stations already set up. And, while we convert to the bio diesel economy, people would still be able to use regular old diesel fuel in a pinch. I used to think I wanted a hybrid, but I don't anymore. My next vehicle will be a VW Gulf or some other diesel engine vehicle.

Answer 5

The alternative power in a hybrid car (usually) comes from a rechargeable battery, not from an electrical power plant.
It is recharged by the gasoline engine.
It uses battery power when traveling at slow speeds. The gasoline engine kicks in when traveling on highways, etc.

Answer 6

No one is providing any "REAL" statistics -
Just a lot of opinions -
My bet is that there is a "MONSTROUS" savings and FAR LESS pollution using pure Electric Vehicles -

Sure you must burn fuel to generate electricity (to charge your EV), but no one factors in how much gas cars sit and idle at stop-lights and how much they waste on acceleration from all those dead-stops on each commute.

The savings in cost and pollution can hardly be measured.

Answer 7

sicne they make their own power that's not bad, the bed is in replacing those big honking batteries after five years or whatever it is. plus their mileage isn't that much better, overall they're just not worth it right now.