The dirty Prius story that won’t go away
Hybrids and EVs face real obstacles, but much higher emissions isn't one of them.
Kill the electric car!
A few days ago the AutomotiveNews ran a story claiming that Toyota admitted that the Prius and other hybrid cars are dirtier to manufacture because “producing hybrid-only parts such as motors, inverters and nickel-metal hydride batteries consumes more energy and creates more emissions than conventional vehicles.”
Unfortunately, the article doesn’t fully discuss total emissions, nor the concepts of scale and innovation.
Anyway, I wasn’t even going to mention this “dirty” Prius story, but now I’ve seen some comments in the blogosphere claiming this study proves that the CNW hybrid study was right and that Hummers are cleaner than Prius hybrids – despite the fact that the CNW has been shown to be severely flawed by numerous objective parties.
But back to the new study. Turns out the Prius is cleaner in terms of lifetime “carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxide” emissions. However, “slightly” above average manufacturing emissions are a result of creating some hybrid parts. So what’s the total impact? On the whole is the Prius still cleaner than the average vehicle or not? Cleaner than most?
Apparently, that piece of the story wasn’t relevant to the AutomotiveNews, but it seems that for most key emissions, the Prius is still cleaner.
Nevertheless, isn’t this all just nonsense anyway?
For instance, scale? Innovation? As more and more of these technologies are manufactured, the manufacturing processes will become cleaner and more efficient. I guarantee, for instance, that manufacturing internal combustion engines is far cleaner today than it was a few decades ago. Likewise, innovations, such as new motors that might one day be rare earth free, for example, have already been developed. In the next few decades countless new motors, inverters and battery designs will be achieved and improved.
More important, Toyota carried out this internal study last year to help make the latest Prius and a number of other hybrids even cleaner.
Today, hybrid and electric cars might not be quite as clean as portrayed, but they are not significantly more dirty than the status quo. More important, the potential of these vehicles has yet barely been tapped.
Inevitably, emissions are not and won’t be the Achilles heal of hybrids and EVs. Cost-effectiveness and foreign lithium dependence, for example, are far more worthy hybrid debate topics.
i’m not sure if there was a force behind CNW. I don’t recall that angle coming up back in – i think – 2006 when this story came out, but maybe that was only because this study was so thoroughly and so quickly hammered.
there was a lot of growing press around the prius and hybrids back then, so it might have just been designed as a PR and advertising revenue gimmick, although a little oil money might have lubed the development of the story, but i doubt that much since the study seemed pretty shoddy.
of course, even shoddy study can have a big impact. by the time the data is analyzed most people’s attention span is already gone, so the truth is hardly relevant. for the small amount of money oil et al would have had to spend, they would have received some good bang for the buck.
Dach – Who was behind the CNW study? This smacks of the oil/coal industries negative campaigns against renewables. Any way to follow the money?
On the whole, from what I can discern in this Toyota study, and from previous Toyota statements, as well as studies by ACEEE, etc., these hybrids are cleaner, particularly when in operation. So, while they might cause “slightly” higher emissions in manufacturing, when balanced with operational reductions, I think they are still probably the cleanest vehicles out there, except for maybe natural gas. In terms of net CO2 emissions, for instance, I don’t think there are any questions.
Likewise, I know for a fact that are numerous new motor designs are in the works and massive improvements have already been made to NiMH technology. In terms of lithium, we’ll have to wait until the lifecycles are complete. Yet, there has been little competition amongst suppliers to develop these technologies because of lack of scale, but I think the potential is quite clear.
on the other hand, i agree with your point on tax credits, and as i think you know, i’ve been pretty vocally against the current plug-in tax credit.
instead, i’ve pretty regularly – and maybe again later today – have argued for a more competitive tax credit. this topic is probably going to be my next post, so i’ll save this discussion for that.
Absolutely
re: as technology matures it get’s “cleaner”.
maybe.
but this technology is promoted right now as cleaner, better, that existing technologies and cited as the rationale for tax breaks and doing away with current technologies.
cart before the horse?
“As more and more of these technologies are manufactured, the manufacturing processes will become cleaner and more efficient” I also believe this is the case. The manufacturing process of hybrids is still relatively new for the automotive industry, and I am sure as the industry gets bigger, they will find new ways to cut costs. I think i read in your previous article that hybrids make up only 3% of total cars in US, so there is certainly place to grow
Not a bad idea though for Toyota and others to anticipate this angle and disclose proactively the data … instead of reacting after the fact.
and I don’t think it’s a bad idea in general to rate cars – cradle to grave on that basis anyhow.
A crummy little conventional econobox that gets 40mpg may well be a ‘greener’ car that the more sophisticated bleeding edge technologies.
That’s not to say that we should quit development of new technologies but at the same time – let’s be more honest about the pros and cons… also.