Toyota's Prius is Less Efficient and Environmentally Friendly than a Hummer?

The quoted, so called CNW study was done by marketing firm, in other words paid advertising. The nonsense written in that report is not even worth as a joke.
To begin with NASA was testing Lunar vehicles in the 60"s, long before PRIUS was even an idea on the paper. The damage done by that nickel plant is being fixed. Listed 100k miles Prius lifetime is not really car's lifetime, but maybe Toyota's warranty for hybrid components, it's lifetime is much longer. 300k lifetime for Hummer is wishful thinking. It's not even worth it to point out every nonsense in this story, which is mostly fiction, combined with total lack of basic knowledge and poor research to double check even elementary facts. And where do you buy non hybrid midsize class sedan with 45 MPG rating in the city??

I'm no great fan of toyota's hybrids. I think their complexity compared to fully electric drive vehicles or a very efficient petrol engines is a real-world downside (servicability particularly) but....

Toyota was up front about the extra costs in building this car and has met all guidelines for recycling of the vehicle (including its batteries) at the end of its life. 100000 is the warrantied life of the vehicle not the likely lifespan of the vehicle.

Concentrating on the revisions in the prius result due to testing/legislative changes (mostly brought about significant improvements/changes in vehicle emmisions) with no mention on how the hummer performed or underperformed is misleading.

The "factor everything in figure" dollar figure per mile stated stuggles against the very simple real world 45mpg vs 15mpg.

Think about the efficiency of the Japanese manufacturing versus the rest.

Marketing statistics are not science.

Of course, no emissions are created in when producing the Hummer or the gasoline used to fuel. Samantha Goodwrench just twitches her nose and "poof" - you have a Hummer and limitless fuel.

The "study" is pure propaganda.

I just wanted to debate a few of the author's points.

1) "This was due to the out of date EPA tests that the government uses to estimate a car's mpg."

This affects all vehicles tested for the U.S. market. The EPA's outdated methodology to test mileage is not Toyota's (or any other car manufacturer's) fault.

2) "Prius only manages to achieve 45 mpg, which is not much higher than most subcompact economy cars."

The EPA determines vehicle classes based on interior volume. The current generation Prius is classified by the EPA as a compact car. The Toyota Yaris is classified as a subcompact car. The author needs to compare apples with apples in this respect. The fact that a bigger car gets better gas mileage is a feat in itself.

3) "The nickel for the Prius is produced in Sudbury, Ontario."

Large-scale nickel mining and production has gone on in Sudbury since 1902. By the time Toyota contracted nickel manufacturer(s) in Sudbury, new environmentally-friendly legislation had already been implemented to protect the area from metal contamination.

4) "...Prius costs and average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles (the expected lifespan of a hybrid)."

According to www.toyota.com, the hybrid-related battery is warranted for 8years/100,000 miles. If you equate a warranty with lifespan, then the author is correct.

5) "...the Hummer will last three times as long and use less energy than the Prius."

This was done by a marketing firm--enough said. Also, even the author was skeptical about this claim. If anyone has any good data to support this claim, please post it.

6) "Basically if you want to save gas and pollute less you should buy a subcompact with a PZEV rated engine."

Or buy a motorcycle, or a scooter, a or a bicycle, or roller blades, or a pogo stick...

The sad part is there are people in this country who will read that article and treat it as gospel. The economy of fools.

Just walked by the brand new hummer dealership here in town. Lot was full...

It's funny to me, how the majority of consumers out there want a better, more fuel efficient and reliable car. But GM all GM's new models are big boxes of steel. DC is still hawking their old HEMI engines (remember that was a concept from the 60s - nuff said), FORD is still pumping out F150s, Excursions and Expedisions... and they all wonder why the keep operating at a Loss... The're still spending millions to market the same trucks with different body panels... and pay for dumb articles like this that misinform the consumer.

They deserve to go Bankrupt!

my theory.
pollution/harm to the environment is proportional to the cost/effort to produce a product/service.
(disregard many things).

how could you sell a car if it costs a lot just to make the batteries. only imagine the amount of steel/metal used in making a hummer, it could have been three times of a prius.

fuel efficieny advantage of a prius over a hummer increases in heavy traffic while diminishes in highway.
put them in idle for the same amount of time, we all know what happens.

In response to Bryan. I believe that Ford's F150 is one of their best selling vehicles, and the Explorer was the best selling SUV in the United States for about a decade... so I see why they still produce those "Big boxes of steel" I don't see why people buy them... Then again if i had a nagging wife and a few kids i guess I'd buy one for her to lug everyone around in, otherwise i don't see the point. Truck serve their purpose for the "working man" I would however, love to see the statistics for how many people who own SUV's have families. I'd be willing to bet more than half don't.

I just wanted to point out, that my dad's chev malibu 2005 with a v6 engine get almost 35 mpg highway and 30 city. This is much bigger that the Prius, more powerful, waaay less batteries, and significantly cheaper. Now, comparing this to the prius 45 mpg, which a friend of mine has been getting in his, seems to me not worth the eco damage of producing all of the heavy metals for the batteries. BTW, the batteries in the prius will last how long? I have heard 9 year average. That would be like replacing the gas engine in a hummer every nine years. I am not completely sold on the study quoted, but from an engineering viewpoint, I can believe the prius is not that much better, if at all, than a regular car, maybe not quit a hummer. :-)

"put them in idle for the same amount of time"

ummmm, Bryan....

The Prius doesn't idle. You don't move, it doesn't burn fuel.

And Ray:
"the eco damage of producing all of the heavy metals for the batteries"

The same nickel smelted at that plant goes into the metal of many, many other products (including vehicles) - some of which probably reside in your home.

Let's all understand the topic before commenting, shall we?

OMG!!! Who wrote this report?!? And who believes it?... that's the worst part!

Let's do some basic math:

Prius (loaded) = 27k
Gas (even at 45mpg) = 6.7k
Oil changes (3kmi) = 1.1k
Total without repairs or service = 35k

Repairs and service = $290,000 ?? or are we to believe that Toyota is taking a $300,000/car loss. (total for roughly 100k cars last year would be roughly $30 bln) Yeah, that's real.

This means that (living in N. VA, I know several Prius owners, not one of which has had a single problem in the first 50k miles), with 20k mi/year (yep, most prius drivers average this or more in the area - that's why they bought it for mileage and HOV usage), we believe that people are spending an average of $60k/yr in service and maintenance. Come on people, if you believe even a shred of this report, go back to 2nd grade and retake math class.

Hummer (which one? - let's go with H2, as H1 is pretty much gone, and H3 isn't a real Hummer)

H2 (loaded) = 62k
Gas (even at 15mpg) = 20k
Oil changes (3kmi) = 1.6k (Yes, you'll pay a premium for oil capacity)
Total without repairs or service = 83k

Repairs and service = ?

Warranties are about the same, as the years count more than the miles (you don't drive a hummer H2 nearly as much as you drive the Prius in most situations).

As the first Toyota I've owned was a 1974 Corona that lasted 125k mi and the first Ford I owned was a 1975 mustang that lasted 62k mi (sure, the mustangs in production were POS at the time, but so were most cars). I've owned many cars since then both US and Japanese, and though they are getting closer in quality, the lifespan for each of thes has increase much in the same ratio with about 50-35 ratio of life spans (My last maxima lasted 325kmi). Do you seriously think that an H2 will last 3 times as long as a Prius? Do you seriously think the H2 even be close to equal in lifespan?

Go to consumer reports and lookup the repair records!

BTW, checkout the periodic maintenance costs on the H2 vs the Prius... heheheh, not that I've ever done more than a single periodic maintenance on any car I've owned. It really hasn't had any effect upon the lifespan of my vehicles beyond the do-it-yourself oil-changes, filter and belt inspection and replacement, occasional radiator flush, etc (unless you consider Ford starters, GM alternators, Ford ball-joints and thermostats, blown GM computers, and Toyota O2 sensors periodic maintenance).

One more thing. As far as the "moon-style eco-damage" in Sudbury, ON, you can view the area on local.live or google maps (or most any of the 11 mapping sites), and you'll notice that the area surrounding the nickel plant covers a radius of about 1000 - 1500 ft and the areas around that are heavily wooded. Though I'm sure it's not entirely pollution-free, it's about half the width of a typical refinery, and about 1/10 the width of a shale-oil mining site (also found in Canada), and that doesn't include all of the typical environmental/runoff and spill protection zones needed in newer facilities.

Peter: I think you're right that we can forget the finer points and put this one to rest.

hmmm, let me think: I've driven the 2006 V6 malibu, and though I was surprised by its acceleration/smoothness/fuel economy (though it lacked a locking torque converter that would've gotten it 2-3 more mpg in the highway) it hit a max of 33 mpg in slow highway driving (29 mpg at 65) and did about 22 mpg in town. What city were you driving in, Nowhere Montana?

well this doesnt sound good at all...even for the sake of argument if the prius takes so much pain in being manufactured with so much money spent on its battery running around the world to be manufactured in pieces in the entire world... i wonder how toyota still manages to keep the cost of the whole car around 25 k......thats an achievement in itself :)

bob, hmmm, let me think's Malibu is pulled by horses... zero pollution thats how he gets such good gas mileage. Either that or god steps in and moves the car along while the engine idles to supply hydraulics for brakes, power steering, etc. LOL... 30MPG city? I wonder if he's got his units wrong...

Just a note though, when you try to calculate MPG, its miles you driving since a full tank of gas subtracted by the missing gas...

Toyota claims that although it takes more environmental impact to manufacture and dispose of the Prius, this is more than made up for in its reduced pollution. They also claim that the Prius is the most efficient car in an oil-well-to-wheel study - I think about 32 percent.

I get about 55 MPG in my Prius, except when I'm running the air conditioner, then I get about 53 MPG. Mileage is also reduced on long high speed trips - about 40-something MPG at 80 MPH. Mileage is also reduced with hard acceleration, etc. It depends on how you drive. In stop-and-go city driving I get close to 60 MPG.

I love the thing - fun to drive, passes slower traffic easily and a darned good sound system.

I can't understand how a Hummer can possibly be cheaper and more environmentally friendly than a Prius. Higher cost, lousy mileage, etc.

SImply, The article although using many media based events such as the NASA comments shoud not be taken lightly.

Truth is regardles of maufacturing costs. The Prius is the worst example of the green parties influence over the world.

FACT: Environmental movements have never once in the history of this world ever been the cause of a positive change to the environment. It has been their desire to do this but every attempt has either failed or been a horrible mistake on their part.

FACT: Green Peace the leader in environmental movements is responsible for a chemical change in refineries in the state of California causing a chemical called MTBE to be implented into our gas to help save the earth.

FACT: MTBE Causes directly, Acid Rain. Green Party Has said, "We regret the information leading to this discovery has been put forth so late in the process to help our planet." They have not represented the chemical since and we are all still left using it because the majority of voters have no idea.

FACT: Volkswagen has a diesel car that uses minimal electronics less than that of todays normal cars. Seats 3-4 people. Gets 75MPG on AVERAGE not Highway. Produces less Pollution both during, and after the car is here on earth. It is Called the Volkswagen Lupo. Look it up. That is the future car.

FACT: Hybrid batteries are going to last around only 10 years. regardless of use. After which they must be recycled and that process especially in non-nuclear areas such as California produces a massive amount of pollution. Along with costing the consumer 12K on avg. to restore their beloved cars.

The real future is in a hydrogen powered car. GMC has been the leader in new fuel technologies. They have been working very hard to release the worlds first mass produced Hydrogen directly powered car. Meaning for those of you not in the loop. Instead of gas, your using a low brow version of space shuttle fuel. Which will produce a whopping 0 pollution, thats right "0" meaning NONE, NADA, Zilch, green house gas, no polluatants. You can pretty much drink the water coming out your exhaust. GMC was set to release their first model in 2009. THey have since been bought out by International a Diesel truck company. This could be the end of the Water powered car. This is where your attention should be.

This article we are all commenting on is complete nonsense.

Only very confused people will believe anything within that article.

As stated by a number of comments, the real world gas mileage is below the E.P.A.'s estimates. Every vehicle tested by the E.P.A. gets less mileage than that agency states. It actually says on the Monroney Label of every new car sold that the mileage rating is for comparison purposes only. Everyone should know that the way that you drive and the conditions that you drive under have a very large effect on your gas mileage.

The hybrid components of a Toyota Prius are covered for 8 years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first.

The E.P.A. conducted testing on the charge holding capacity of a Prius. The agency tested charge before and after a 150,000 mile road test. The holding capacity was reported to be the same. The E.P.A. then asked a taxi cab driver to continue the experiment. When 260,000 miles was reached the E.P.A. then tested the capacity again, and according to the report, the charge holding capacity was the same.

A NiMH, like the ones used in a Prius, battery can have two to three times the capacity of an equivalent size NiCd and the memory effect is not as significant. However, compared to the lithium-ion battery, the volumetric energy density is lower and self-discharge is higher.

All Prius' since 2004 have been "built-forward". When more efficient batteries are designed, they can actually be plugged in where the old batteries were.

Also, the replacement costs for the batteries is less than replacing your transmission on your Hummer.

Toyota designed the batteries to cause practically no pollution if disposed of properly. That is readily available information.

In response to BEN's very misguided post, Honda has the only Hydrogen powered car to date to actually be out on the road every day. The hydrogen used to power the car seems to be the problem with the release of the car. Making pure hydrogen is not feasible on a mass production level at this time.

Just to set the record straight, the car does not run on water (h20), but hydrogen (H). The by-product is pure (H2O), but the actual fuel is hydrogen, not water. In other words, you can't pour distilled water in your engine and make the car go. You must use highly pressurized pure hydrogen. (Remember the Hindenburg anyone)

General motors Flex Fuel, using ethanol, is really their only jump into alternative fuels. I would love to know how many Flex Fuel vehicles have ever had E-85 in their tanks. The fuel is very hard to find with very few gas stations actually having the fuel. The E-85 also burns more readily than gasoline, leading to worse overall mileage. It also costs the same as regular unleaded. What exactly is the positive to Flex Fuel?

Also BEN, when exactly did General Motors get bought by International? This never happened. No company would ever actually purchase GM, who lost over 10 billion in a fiscal year (2005)

The Prius is one of the first cars to change the way we travel since the invention of the internal-combustion engine. Because we are all scared of change, every one seems to be scared of the Prius. 500,000 Toyota hybrid buyers across the globe, with more than half being here in the U.S.

Don't be afraid because you don't know the difference between a Hummer and a Prius

I have a 2006 Prius now for 1.5 years. I get 61mpg and if I really watch my driving I can get 66mpg. So the 45mpg that some people say they are getting is because they drive full tilt everywhere and speed up to stop lights and stop signs.
In Ontario where I live, the government wants to impose a top speed of 105km/h on trucks as it will save each truck $8,000 per year. Even the Ontario Truckers Assocation is backing this proposal.
So driving way above the speed limit will lower ANY cars mpg.
But about the article itself, the Canadian countrywide paper Globe and Mail has a writer that has slammed the hybrids over and over. Plus the TD Waterhouse has the same writer who quoted this article and who clearly is motivated by a special interest group to slam hybrids.

I love my Prius as it saves me over $3,000 per year (I drive about 25,000km (16,000mile) per year) and I arrive to my destinations relaxed and I super love the drive itself as the car is quiet.

On top of that the car is a technological marvel. The dash controls are space age, the tire pressure is constantly monitored, the night lights come on automatically, the car doors lock and open with the touch of your hand, the cell phone links up to the car by bluetooth....do I need to go on.

Driving the car is an extreme pleasure and knowing that I am reducing my annual CO2 emmissions by over 6 lbs per gallon of gas saved is amazing.

Plus factor in the super, super low emissions attained by having the gas engine kick in at 25km/h or higher where the burning of the gasoline is nearly perfect is such a revolutionary concept that Toyota should receive a Nobel Peace prize for all good they are doing with this car.

I drove through Sudbury where the copper is smelted, the article is bull. The area is green as any neighbourhood. Maybe the article is refering to the pollution of the 50's and 60's?

Lastly, my Mom owns ands drives a Hummer H2. So my driving a Prius according to my wife is to make up for my mom driving a Hummer. I don't knock the Hummer to her face as she rarely drives it. Which is contrary to the article. We must be freaks for not matching the article.

I just hope the US manufacturers learn from Toyota.......yeah, I know, that will NEVER happen. If not yesterday and not today, when? Exactly, never. Very, very sad. But good for Toyota.

$3.25 x 100,000 miles = $325,000 !!!! I paid about $25,000 for my Prius, what am I going to spend the other $300,000 on ???? Not sure of the author's true motive here but the article loses all credibility for me and probably for anyone else that can do basic math. Goes to show you can't believe numbers published by marketing pukes.

The Toyota Prius and the Hummer are both very polluting in their own sence. it cost alot of energy to make a prius, but it does recycle its energy thats why it gets 60mpg. the Hummer demends less energy to produce than a prius, but gets terrible gas mileage. its not fair to compare them; they are built for completely different purposes. to sum it up, neither of them are "a good choice" for the betterment of humanity and our environment. for now, the wiser choice for an econimical car is the honda civic, and the toyota corolla. WOW, isnt that rocket science. its so basic. we either need to drive civics, and corollas, or we need to make hydrogen fuel cell and/or solor electric cars to keep our wastefulness to a minimal. for now the honda civic and toyota corolla seem to be the leading automobiles for minimal energy AND resource consumption. its like our society will never learn when we have had enough. i am sure we will continue to burn oil and fossil fuels untill we have sucked the earth dry. that is my lack of hope, we will have to experience something very terrible, to even comprehend to change for the betterment of our logic in our society ...its all about minimalism. use less, and we will have a more enjoyable cleaner life.

Top Gear tested the Prius and basicly siad It was a kid killer. I'd reather someone had a laud exhuast coming down the street then a silent Prius. Atleast I can hear the car. Thanks to the Prius tell all your kids stop look keep looking and run really fast so the silent Prius doesnt kill you.

ALL I CAN IS WOW! The level of ignorance on here in unbelievable. People are forgetting exactly why we need to make drastic changes in the automobiles. first off Hmmmm, does anyone realize that globally we consume 14 BILLION BARRELLS of OIL PER DAY! Yeah its time people started getting a CLUE and start understanding that OIL output is starting to dry up and global population is exponentially growing. in the very near future, we are going to need more than oil to keep up with our GLOBAL DEMAND FOR "ENERGY". Take it from someone that knows the OIL INDUSTRY WELL. Yes I own a TRUCKING CO. and my daily fuel bill is about $65,000 daily or 26,000 gallons of fuel perday.
lets convert that to a year.
($390,000wk X 52 wk = $20,208,000 per year for cost of fuel)
(156,000gallons wk X52 wks = 8,112,000 gallons of diesel per year) and these numbers are on the ROUNDED DOWN based on $3.00 per gallon of diesel

Within the oil industry, it is secretively known that oil output is falling, and the expected life of oil as of today is now less than 65 years. i have a couple of friends that own oil companies. and when they are worried about declining output,growing demand, and saying things like "what are we going to do when it ALL THE OIL DRIES UP!" how are we going to power our infrastructure, manufacture the millions of products(ex. tires, paint, plastic bags, toys, carpet,cleaners, computers, TV`s, tools, beds, and so on) they all use oil byproducts in manufacturing them. without the oil we will have nothing.

So you must ask yourself why are you quibling over the cost for alternatives vs combustion engines. when one day in the very near future your gas powered vehicle is going to become a NICE YARD STATUE !

I would say its time to get over oil but that is not the case. what we really need to do is get over the internal combustion engine.
because we need oil for other things.

???GLOBAL WARMING OR IS IT JUST A SMOKE SCREEN FOR THE OIL IS RUNNING OUT??????

.....................

researchers discovered that the Prius costs and average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles (the expected lifespan of a hybrid). On the other hand the Hummer costs $1.95 per mile over an expected 300,000 miles. Which means that the Hummer will last three times as long and use less energy than the Prius.

i don't think anyone took notice of this, but the comparisons are wrong. the H2 is done at 300,000 miles, while the prius is done at 100,000. to put it simply, the costs were reduced by a third for the H2, or increased three-fold for the prius... (whichever way u wanna look at it). One more thing, especially in this day and age, all cars have bits and pieces made all over the world, and assembled accordingly. as far as i can tell, this article hasn't proved anything

OK, FIRST OFF THE REPORT IS B.S AND SOME OF THE OTHER COMMENTS WERE POSTED BY CRACK SMOKERS. I HAVE BEEN IN THE CAR BUSINESS FOR 5 YEARS, I HAVE SOLD EVERYTHING...HUMMERS TOO. THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL THAT A 2005 CHEVY MALIBU V-6 GETS 35MPG HIGHWAY. NOT EVEN IF YOU LIT IT ON FIRE AND PUSHED IT OFF A CLIFF. I NOW SELL TOYOTA BECAUSE THEY ARE AN ENVIROMENTALY FRIENDLY COMPANY. YOU CAN VERIFY THAT ON TREEHUGGER.COM. HYBRID TECHNOLOGY IS STILL IN IT'S INFANTCY, THE GOAL HERE IS TO GET TO A PLACE WHERE WE BURN NO FOSSIL FUELS AND PLACE NO CONTAMINATION THROUGH USE OR MANUFACTURING BACK INTO THE EARTH. TOYOTA IS CLEARLY LEADING THE CHARGE. SO WE NEED TO GET WITH THE PROGRAM OR FIND ANOTHER PLANET TO DESTROY.

Bryan, First of all Ford and Chevy have been cornerstones to our current place in the world. They sold and built the cars that make them money which makes alot of sense. I fault them for no diversifying but to say that they deserve to go bankrupt is pure ignorance. What about all the people in those michigan suburbs that rely on Ford to feed there families?

I agree with th B.S. statements. I own a 2001 Prius. It now have over 137K miles.It averages 47.2 mpg. Absolutely no maintenance repaires required except 12v battery and tires. Original brakes and I estimate them to last to 160k.The car is still solid and its driving qualities are like the first day I owned it. I love the car and absolutely will not sell it or trade if off except for another Prius.

Figures don't lie,
But liars can figure.

Start over. Why use either? It is better on the overall carbon footprint created by personal transportation to simply drive "Plug in" type electric vehicles. They can be charged at night during off peak hours. Batteries are the most recyclable product out there. Two motors? Multiple, complex regernerating equipment? Complex control systems that nobody could possibly work on at home? Sounds like we would be complicating the manufacturing/ fueling process even further. The additional electricity consumption of electric vehicles can easily be offset by making our homes more energy efficient. Got an AC unit baking in the sun on your roof? Install dark asphalt shingles last time roofed your house? How's the insulation in your attic? Is your porchlight 100 Watts? Single pane windows? Here's where we can get the extra electricity. Don't complicate it further, and don't drain our water planting corn.

Prius less efficient than a Hummer? There's no question this article is part of a disinformation campaign that could have been taken straight out of Karl Rove's playbook.
There are strong business interests who don't want this country to be energy independent. Question is, who's behind this article? General Motors? Big Oil?
I spent a week driving a rental Prius in Florida in March of this year. It was a most impressive vehicle that delivered over 60 miles per gallon in quiet comfort. I plan to buy a 2009 model as soon as they're available.

Prius less efficient than a Hummer? There's no question this article is part of a disinformation campaign that could have been taken straight out of Karl Rove's playbook.
There are strong business interests who don't want this country to be energy independent. Question is, who's behind this article? General Motors? Big Oil?
I spent a week driving a rental Prius in Florida in March of this year. It was a most impressive vehicle that delivered over 60 miles per gallon in quiet comfort. I plan to buy a 2009 model as soon as they're available.

As much as I despise the Hummer and I think pretty highly of the Prius, I do believe the article highlights some interesting points - propaganda aside. Basically, it is not clear to me whether or not hybrid are the way to go. From a cost standpoint, producing a car with 2 engines is not only more expensive but as the number of parts (specially moving ones) goes up, the reliability goes down. That is not to say that Toyota does not do a great job but the same car with one engine would be cheaper and more reliable. From a "green" standpoint, if every car on the road was Prius, rest assured that the production and disposal of those batteries would be a pretty massive eco headache just as well. Needless to say, if Toyota manufactured one engine instead of two, it would probably use less resources as well. Once again, Toyota maybe very efficient doing it that way but it simply highlights that even Toyota has plenty of room for improvement. Do not get me wrong, I will not be running for an H2 anytime soon but there are other technologies compatible with MPGs, $$$, and "green" issues that may be more competitive when looking through a magnifying glass. As previously posted, the VW Lupo achieved 80 mpg on a diesel. Not only that, diesel in many countries is substantially cheaper than regular. Diesel costs less to produce than regular but cost varies per country due to taxes, distribution channels, and good ol' governments in general. A plug in may be a better alternative as well, if we did not have to worry about finding a plug when we run out of juice. Hydrogen is yet another one if we could find those pesky Hydrogen gas stations ;) . Last but not least, several countries run their taxi cabs and buses on CNG (Compressed Natural Gas). It would be nice to see people not just looking at MPG, but the whole system for a change.

This marketing was later shown by several research institutions to be completely false, and nothing more than marketing hoopla. The big argument against the Prius comes from its Nickel-MH battery technology. The thing is, in comparison, the Hummer has 3x the amount of nickel in its stainless steel frame alone. The next-gen Prius batteries will most likely be Li-Ion or Li-Poly anyways, so its a mute point. NiMH batteries are not hard to dispose of either... nickel is a natural substance, not nuclear waste.

Hey Johnny boy. Yo tengo una pregunta sabre la toyota pruis. Es qué tú dices sabre la verdad? Yo y mi famila estamos creyendo sobre comprar una prius y nosotros estamos quieriendo aprender mås qué la toyota prius! Por favor respondarme!

Hey Johnny boy. Yo tengo una pregunta sabre la toyota pruis. Es qué tú dices sabre la verdad? Yo y mi famila estamos creyendo sobre comprar una prius y nosotros estamos quieriendo aprender mås qué la toyota prius! Por favor respondarme!

No quiero a. Tengo 7 hummers. Let' ¡s va calentamiento del planeta! ¡Abajo con la tierra!

This article is about as stupid as stupid gets:

Two things to consider:

Prius sells for $24,000. it averages city hwy about 46-52 mpg depending on driver. I got about 51.

I owned mine for five years and drove 100,000 miles. I used about 1960 gallons of gas in that time at an average cost of $3.22 or approximately $6313. I only did oil changes, air filter changes, tires and cabin filter. My total cost of ownership COO was $32,545 minus my trade in 13,000 or $19,545, or 19.5 cents per mile.

If I'd bought a baby hummer for about $29,000 and drove it for 100,000 miles I would have gotten about 19 mpg average and used about 5216 gallons at $3.22 or $16,947. It would have needed brakes, tires, oil changes, tune-ups, and significant repairs, I'll say an additional $3500 for a total of $49,447 minus a trade in value of about $8,000 or $41,447 ( 41.45 cents per mile )more than double the cost of a Prius and the prius has less that one third the emissions.

Now if I needed a Hummer or 4 Runner to tow my boat, I'd buy one, but I sure as hell wouldn't drive it 20,000 miles a year.

The batteries get recycled into new ones and Toyota will pay $1800 for the set, the money is set aside at the purchase and is about half the cost of the Hybrid upcharge.

Phil Bickel bicbickel@yahoo.com

I think what many of you are buying into the hummer aspect of this argument. think about a standard combustion honda accord which is a way more popular car than a hummer. The overall energy expended to create the regular accord is much less than the prius (which is two cars in one) and gets just a little less mpg. Then Of course you have to factor in the nickel refineries and transporting this material to them.

Too many of you are factoring in your own personal "footprint" instead of looking at the big picture. I too want to have a cleaner environment, but it is important to question companies who are doing everything they can to keep the combustion engine alive. These very same companies have already created fully electric cars, so why stop making those to make a "hybrid"... because they are squeezing every last dollar out of combustion engines before they have no choice to go all electric. Think people. This issue isn't about red or blue, when companies talk about going green, it ain't about the green we think of, it's all about MONEY.

Let's not forget, all of us, that internal combustion became more popular in the EARLY 20TH CENTURY than electric engines. Why? They are more powerful, more reliable, and can take the car a greater distance. People will argue with me about cars like the Tesla Roadster, which I also think is an idiotic car at the end of the day. I'm sorry, but a car that will only take me 200 (Supposedly) miles on a single charge, and then take 16 hours to refill is a tad stupid to me. Also, consider the fact that all the batteries in that make it weigh far more than it's sister car (It shares a frame with the Lotus Elise)

Besides that, and this is just me talking, of course, but hybrid engines just aren't fun. It's a bit like Scarlet Johansen's lips: I can never really imagine a Prius smiling. Nor can I imagine a driver of such a vehicle smiling. It's dull. And I should know, I've driven one. Sure, all the technology around you is interesting, and it's cool to see the KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System, let's be honest, it IS the same thing as what some teams were using in F1 last year) working, but there's nothing dynamic about the drive. I'm more of a driver that concentrates on the feel of a car, though, so assuming that all the info about the Prius being more environmentally damaging than a Hummer is false, I'll just keep on driving my fast and dynamic cars while the dullards keep driving their priuses (Assuming that's the right way to pluralize it... Priuses? Prii?) and simply rest easy knowing I'm having far more fun behind the wheel. I look at it this way- You only live once, and about 10 to 15 years of your life (In grand total) are spent behind the wheel. I might as well make them as fun as I can.

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For all the people berating this article, you seem to have missed the whole point. Yes, driving a Hummer is less fuel efficient than driving a Prius, by a long way. The author does not dispute this.

However the energy (and overall environmental impact) needed to produce and dispose of a Prius far exceeds that needed for a Hummer, let alone a sensible fuel efficient car.

Basically with zero miles on the clock the Prius is more damaging to the environment than a Hummer. Gradually as both are driven the Prius will start to make up the deficit caused by the increased environmental impact of its manufacture and disposal.

The important question which no one seems to have touched on is how many mile you have to drive before the Prius becomes more environmentally friendly than a Hummer, and whether this is within the realistic lifespan of the car.

It would be interesting to see a graph with the total environmental impact of many different vehicles so the public could see which is the most environmentally friendly from ore to road to scrap metal.

To All of you Tree Huggers:

Wake up and think for yourselves. Quit believing all the sales propaganda. As a Toyota fan owning over 23 Toyota's, and also working for Toyota and owning my own repair shop, this car and all hybrids are a joke. They are feeding on the new GREEN marketing to consumers. Most consumers are very naive when it comes to cars, and don't have a clue about the inner workings of one. When was the last time the average consumer decided to purchase a car based on the transmission, or even considered what type of transmission is in the vehicle. They don't, know and don't care. Consumers like the bells and whistles, looks, keeping up with the jones, power, and the guilt of doing their part for the environment.
Bottom line the article has some good points, but you tree huggers don't care. You want to come up with anyway to justify your stupidity. In some tests in Europe the Prius got worse gas mileage than some V8 engine vehicles.

Look at the big picture!

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