Are hybrid cars harmful to the enviroment?

Question

I heard of a study that said the pollution required to make the nickel that goes into the making of the battery is fare worse than the energy saved by driving them. In other words hybrids pollute more than Hummers. Have all hybrid owners been dooped?

far not fare*

I hear that there is a nickel plant in Canada that has really hurt the enviroment with plant life dying. Now nasa pratices there because it looks like the moon. Blame Canada.

Answer 1

Why is there such knee-jerk polarization of environmental views?

This is a VERY valid question. When I purchased my hybrid almost five years ago, the NiMH battery was one of the things I had the biggest problems with. At the time, no one knew exactly how long those batteries would last. The best guess was about 8 years back then. Right now, the battery is going strong, but the evidence is not there, yet. It may turn out that environmentally, the hybrid may be a wash.

The harmful nature of nickel smelting/refining to the environment, plus the skyrocketing costs of nickel has Toyota and Honda rushing adoption of Li-ion batteries for use in hybrids. Hopefully, when they refine that technology, I'll be able to retrofit my car and safely dispose of the old battery. But until then, people should evaluate whether a hybrid is the best kind of car for your needs. If you are an urban commuter who has no practical access to public trans, then a hybrid is great. It's ability to run electrically not only reduces your use of carbon fuels, it brings your ozone emissions down to almost zero. Whether you believe in global warming or not, cutting down on ozone/smog in the urban environment has VERIFIABLE savings in health care costs.

Scott's right about an efficient diesel. These can be just as efficient, if not more when you do a lot of highway/freeway driving. The same is true for efficient gasoline engines.

Answer 2

Every car is harmful to the environment, if you define perfect environment to be that without human impact.

Secondly, while people will rightly argue that the data used to get the value of the cost of the hybrid per mile is vastly incorrect (because I really don't believe a Hummer is a better choice than the Prius). There will be NO arguement from them that the nickel plant in Canada is one of the worst environmental blights on the entire planet.

Believe what you want, but if you are truly concerned about overall pollution and damage to the environment, I recommend a small car with a small turbo diesel engine that will get about the same (or better) mileage than pretty much any hybrid under realistic driving conditions.

Answer 3

It's not just the gas milage that contributes to a hybrid's low footprint. The gas engine doesn't work as hard or run all of the time so oil changes can be less frequent (though the manufactuer doesn't lengthen the recommended interval). Friction braking only kicks in below 7 mph on the Prius so the brakes should last the life of the car and then some. Batteries in high milage Hybrids are holding up well. These and other factors just might allow Hybrids to last longer than a comparable gas only car and make up the difference in manufacuring costs in life length alone.

I understand that diesel gives off soot which is nasty to breathe. In addition, it settles to the ground, lowers the Earth's reflectivity and contributes to Global Warming. I haven't done enough research on this though.

Answer 4

Not all batteries use nickel as an ingredient. Some use more dangerous substances.

On the study of relative pollution, probably hard to get firm data, but really, one has to look at all the energy needed to produce the raw materials, finished sub-assemblies, and final product., getting it to the user, and the costs of the new fuel services required, and that result pollution, compared to the present.

One also needs to consider the aural pollution caused by drivers cursing and swearing at the lack of fueling stations and at electric cars that quit after 00 miles or so and take hours to run again.

Iron is fairly easy to extract, some of the rare metals take a lot more energy to get the ores and then process to the metals. And involve strong chemicals, which can cause strong pollution or are expensive to dispose of safely.

So fr, those proposing small hybrid cars are not dealing with the whole of the issue.

You are right to ask about the comparisons in the whole. Few do, especially those pushing us to immediate and expensive change.

I do not recall certain loud proponents of preventing Global Warming giving up their large houses and private jets!!

Duped, probably not, but I do think the whole story is not told of the total impact of a lot of the proposals to mitigate the now predicted global warming.

Answer 5

There are some nickel smelters that pollute, and some that are pretty clean. There's nothing about making nickel that can't be done cleanly. It is something that can be improved.

The "a Hummer is better than a Prius" nonsense from a political group is thoroughly refuted here, by scientists:

http://www.pacinst.org/topics/integrity_of_science/case_studies/hummer_versus_prius.html

Short summary with a link to a seven page analysis.

Answer 6

Yes I have a Honda Civic and I think it gets better mileage than the hybrid's.

Answer 7

Nope, thats just car companies trying to bring down hybrids because no one wants to buy cars that car half a mile to the gallon.

Answer 8

Just don't eat fruity pebbles and the environment will be saved.

Answer 9

Geez how often do we have to go over this?

Dust to Dust debunked:

http://www.pacinst.org/topics/integrity_of_science/case_studies/hummer_vs_prius.pdf

Answer 10

probably who knows