hybrid fuel cars?

Question

in your opinion, are they helpful?

do they really help the enviorment? why or why not?

i already know that the batteries take a lot of energy to make and recycle, and that they're expensive and made with nasty by-products.

please help me out; sites would be good, and opinions would be good also.
thank you(:

Answer 1

Use of hybrid vehicles would help with our overall consumption of oil due to their overall better fuel mileage. As for helping the environment; there are some significant downsides to hybrid technology. The batteries will need to be disposed of and are made with some pretty toxic component materials. Due to the fact that hybrids use the brake system along with their small gas engine to generate power to recharge the batteries they require more brake maintenance and disposal of worn parts. They also have a much shorter tire life due to the extra friction. A co-worker has a Toyota Prius with 150,000 miles on it and is on his 6th set of tires. Tires on regular cars should last at least 50,000 miles or more so his tire consumption is twice what it would typically be. Let’s not forget either that one of the primary components of tires is petroleum. Hybrid batteries also do not operate as well in cold temperatures so anyone in a colder climate will be using the gas engine more than someone who lives in a warm climate thus reducing the overall benefit. The cleanest running cars would be powered by hydrogen fuel cells as their only byproduct is water however that is a very expensive and difficult technology to use so it is really not practical. Bio-diesel and regular diesel fuel is much dirtier than regular gas and requires considerably more emission controls on the vehicle to keep pollution to a minimum.

Motor Trend magazine published a pretty comprehensive article on the subject of alternative fuels. It can be found at http://www.motortrend.com/features/consumer/112_0705_alternative_fuel_technology/index.html

Answer 2

Hi,
Here is a go at answering your question and some of the issues brought up in the other responses:

1) Battery recycling:
Toyota does have a battery recycling program -- here is a little blurb on it:
"Toyota has a comprehensive battery recycling program in place and has been recycling nickel-metal hydride batteries since the RAV4 Electric Vehicle was introduced in 1998. Every part of the battery, from the precious metals to the plastic, plates, steel case and the wiring, is recycled. To ensure that batteries come back to Toyota, each battery has a phone number on it to call for recycling information and dealers are paid a $200 "bounty" for each battery."
More here:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/06/should_we_be_wo_1.php

I think people are envisioning these hybrid battery packs as huge -- they are actually quite compact -- not a lot bigger than a couple shoe boxes as I recall.
When you compare the small issue of recycling the battery pack at the end of the cars life to the 88000 lbs less of CO2 emissions (see below), its hard for me to believe that the hybrid is not a large environmental plus.

2) Energy Saving
My Prius gets a consistent and reliable 50 mpg -- this is carefully recorded over 37,000 miles. This is twice as good as the Subaru Outback I had before, which was about the same size. Over the 200,000 mile life of the car, this saves:
4620 gallons of gas
88,000 lbs of CO2
$13,840 in gasoline cost at $3 per gallon
These are from: http://www.hybridcars.com/calculator/
A great way to compare car fuel econ and emissions.
The idea that other cars get as good a mileage simply does not hold up -- use the calculator and see for yourself, or check with ConsumerReports.org.

3) Diesels and Hybrids:
I think the new diesels that use the new low sulfur fuel will be a good choice, and will get good fuel economy. One thing to bear in mind with diesel is that one reason they do well on fuel economy is that the fuel has about 15% more energy content than gasoline -- this also means that it has 15% more carbon and 15% more CO2 emissions -- so it will not do as well in reducing greenhouse gases as it does in reducing fuel costs.
Of course, if you use bio-diesel this does not apply, but its doubtful (to me) if enough bio-diesel can be made to supply a significant fraction of the fleet.

4) Brake Wear:
One response said that hybrids wear out brakes faster. It is just the opposite. A lot of the braking energy goes into the regenerative braking system that recovers stopping energy to charge the battery. This is energy the brakes don't have to absorb, and they therefore last much longer.

5) Tire Wear:
I don't understand why hybrids would experience faster tire wear, and it is not my experience.

Who knows what technology will bring in the next 10 or 20 years, but if you want to do something NOW, I think hybrids are the a good way to go.

My experiences with my Prius:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Vehicles/ourprius.htm

Useful links on hybrids, electrics, and biofueled cars:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Vehicles/vhehicles.htm

Gary

Answer 3

Do they help the environment? No. As other posters have already noted the battery disposal will be a very bad thing when the time comes.

Is it better for CO2 emissions? Yes, you get more MPG plain and simple. So less fuel burned for a given distance traveled.

I have had mine since Katrina. I went from 16 MPG in my 6 cylinder F-150 to 32 MPG (all MPG’s here are expressed in the overall average vs. city or highway) in my Ford Escape Hybrid. I still drive the same amount so I put out half the C02 (actually less than half because the Atkinson cycle engine is more efficient than the Otto cycle in the F-150 but lets keep it simple)

Now, of course I could have bought many different cars that get 32 MPG without resorting to hybrid technology. However, I am a big guy and I do not like to sit low to the ground. I have a nice comfortable and roomy vehicle that I sit up high in and that will tow my boat and *still* get 32 MPG. A very important distinction, at least to me.

Answer 4

right that's a shorter answer: Hybrids could be compatiable with biofuels or petroleum fuels and are extra effectual, incredibly in case you force short distances. Pay very close interest to while fashions come out, considering the fact that there are important tax reward for paying for new style hybrids, yet those disappear while they have offered some variety of a given style. in case you may no longer get a tax smash, it's going to take a jointly as so you might recoup the extra cost of a hybrid. evaluate a diesel. I force a 2006 Jetta TDI, can use biodiesel as much as i prefer and get an common of 45MPG in primairly city driving, fifty 5 on longer journeys and characteristic quite a few circumstances gotten sixty 5 on my previous trip. Any which way, get a easy motor vehicle with a small engine.

Answer 5

Toyota Hybrid batteries are Nicad, so no acid, will be 100% recycled by toyota. Don't take a lot of energy to make compared to overall car manufacture. Probably more nickle in your stainless steel cutlery set.

they are a way of introducing people to the pleasure of quiet, smooth relaxing to drive electric vehicles without upsetting the big oil companies.

Li-ion batteries http://www.altairnano.com/markets_amps.html that give a 250 mile range and 10 minute recharge time mean we don't need the highly polluting hard to recylce infernal combustion engine, ice, with lots of composite components rare metals and petrochemical contamination, and very large quantities of nasty by-products.
www.teslamotors.com

Answer 6

Hybrids are a way of getting electric powered cars out there. Right now, they're iffy. But once we come up with zero point energy extraction, it'll be a snap to pull out the gas engine and most of the batteries, recycle them, and install a Searl or Hamel or Hutchinsen energy generating system.

Answer 7

hybrids are a joke. all gas cars sometimes get comparable mileage, so why pay all the extra money. here is a link to the Tesla Motor Company. An all-electric car in the beginning stages of sales and development. Current cost is around $100,000 for a sport coupe. Sounds like alot, but comparable gas powered coupes cost nearly the same, plus cost alot in fuel and oil and repairs. Can you imagine if development money for hybrids instead went to this company? $20k sedans in the near future? oh, and they also are working with a solar company for panels that could keep the car charged. and now 0-60 in FOUR seconds!

Answer 8

Natural Gas (except for cerified sewage natural gas) is bad
a) 10 years more than petro oil before gone.
b) NG vehicles burns in 1 day the equivalent of 1 year of household heating for 1 home.

Best choice: Diesel.
1) Technology is already here (no more tax money needed)
2) Newer "Clean Diesel" has emision qualities that is already far better than most Unleaded vehicles w/ smog cntls
3) Instant change over to Bio-diesel as it emerges as the new fuel of the future.
4) With Bio-Diesel only CO2 and NO2 and H2O is the byproducts (plus heat)
5) You can get a Diesel-electric hybrid.
6) If you have a garage, you can make bio-diesel at home, with mostly store bought supplies.
7) Intirely green sources.

The best alternative vehicle , next to bicycles or horses.

Answer 9

Most hybrid cars use lead-acid batteries, most of whose components can be recycled (certainly the lead can), so battery disposal isn't as severe a problem as some would have you believe, even if lead-acid batteries are not a perfect solution. Our local waste collection centre here in London, for example, collects lead-acid batteries for recycling.

Increasingly, hybrid cars are likely to use Ni-MH (Nickel-Metal Hydride) or Li-Ion (Lithium-Ion) batteries. The Tesla car uses a Li-Ion battery pack, while Toyota (I think) showed a prototype MPV with a large NiMH energy battery pack. As NiMHs and Li-Ions have a better energy storage to size ratio than lead-acids, they allow a car to go further and faster on a single charge. They are also environmentally friendly and simpler to recycle.

The production and recycling of batteries certainly take energy, but extracting oil, refining it and then transporting it to where it's needed consume large amounts of energy as well.

Answer 10

Hi Caroline, I make a device for cars, makes them all a little hybrid, cost $!0 a year to run saves 30% fuel Only Australia