Do Hummers really have an overall lesser impact on the environment than Priuses?
Answer:
The study that Peter cites is out there, but it just irks me to no end. First it figures that the Hummer will go 300,000 miles over the life of the vehicle versus only 100,000 miles on the Toyota. I expect with the reliability of a Toyota it will go far more than 100,000. And since the study considers the initial cost of the vehicle, the cost of fuel by factory workers (and all that other one time costs), the cost of the Hummer is divided by 300,000 vs the Prius being divided by 100,000 so yeah that would make a huge difference in their cost per mile figure. Another example of statistics gone bad.
Second, the article says that the plant the nickel comes from is so barren that NASA tested moon rovers there. OK. That may well be true, but what does that have to do with the Prius? When was the last time they tested moon rovers? I would guess it was long before the Prius was ever even designed. The damage at the site was done LONG before the Prius was built meaning that something else is using the nickel in the plant.
Nickel is used in chrome and stainless steel. There are lots of environmental nightmares from our past -- strip mining and chopping down entire forests, but a lot of that has been changed. I don't know if anything has changed at the nickel mine in Canada, but I do know the damage was done years before the Prius. Prius is working on at lithium battery but won't release it until they are sure of the reliability.
if that is true i would like to see this study. but i doubt it is true.
Well, a Prius still is a new car that hasnt had the process of making it streamlined, so as they start to make more I am sure the costs will go down. As with most things that are green and environmentally friendly, they are not as easily available right now and they cost more, but as more people keep buying them and demand keeps going up, prices will come down, processes will be more streamlined and they will have less impact on the environment.
Looking at just gas usage, the prius gets 60 miles to the gallon while the hummer is lucky to get 20, so if you drive them for say, 120,000 miles the Prius will you one third the fuel of a hummer and I think that will be hard for the hummer to beat as far as being environmentally friendly.
Since 80% of the energetic impact of a car is through its lifetime and only 20% for its construction, I have VERY SERIOUS DOUBTS ABOUT THE STUDY...
Do you even imagine how much more steel and other materials are needed to build a Hummer ?
The original Hummer is the best and is much better for the enviornment than a Toyota Pius. 790
A quick search shows a likely source for the article:
http://clubs.ccsu.edu/recorder/editorial...
It's not a study, but a general outline of what the author thinks the environmental impact is. There's no citations showing that anything in the editorial is true, although I'm going to assume that it is all true.
The hummer costs far more to make in energy and pollution terms. It is heavier and therefore requires more power and thus fuel. It's weight leaves rubber on the road from it's tyres.
It's size often causes it and other cars around it to go slower thus causing them to run their engines at speeds lower than they run efficiently at and thus burn more fuel and emit more.
Their weight means that to accelerate from thirty to fifty actually uses more fuel than most cars let alone a prius uses to cover several miles!
People will try to tell you anything.
By the way - I have this great bridge in London for sale at a bargain price - interested?
Peter did a good job finding the article. Some other factors that need to be considered though include the energy costs associated with the construction of the car. Someone was able to make the argument, but with no citation of sources I have to say they're full of hot air.
We all know what opinions are like, don't we?
Just goes to show you that humans are able to justify anything. I am very happy I am not justifying ownership of a Hummer.
The answers post by the user, for information only, FunQA.com does not guarantee the right.
More Questions and Answers: