Toyota Prius unveiled at the 2009 Detroit Motor Show
The Toyota Prius has been a striking success, selling in numbers its manufacturer could only have dreamed of.
It’s by far the biggest selling electric and petrol engined hybrid in history, and now a new Toyota Prius has been unveiled at the Detroit Motor Show.
But should we all rush out and buy one if we want to save the planet?
While the current model certainly isn’t a heavy polluter, it’s far from being stand out.
Toyota claims it can achieve 65.7mpg, but Auto Trader averaged between 45 and 55mpg in our week with the car back in 2007.
This level of economy is respectable, but commonplace in any number of diesel and efficient petrol hatchbacks.
There are also worries surrounding the safe disposal of chemicals used in the batteries of the Prius and other hybrid vehicles, which conventional cars aren’t affected by.
The new Toyota Prius will combat these accusations with greener statistics.
It’s more aerodynamic and it weighs less – important factors in making it use less fuel.
Surprisingly its engine has grown, from 1.5 to 1.8-litres in size, but special tuning will mean it uses less fuel than before.
So, it will undoubtedly be the greenest Prius ever, and it’ll be lapped up by Hollywood, but is it the solution for the rest of us? Do you think there are greener alternatives to the Prius?
Soon the Prius will be faced by a direct rival, the Honda Insight. It’s also a petrol-electric hybrid, and figures of 64.2mpg and 101g/km have been leaked onto the Internet.
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A diesel hybrid would be the best way to go. Apart from what is produced from food processing waste product like whey, efficiently manufacturing the ethanol that is hyped as replacing petrol usually uses food crops, which is not sustainable in the long run. Biodiesel on the other hand can be made from all sorts of stuff, including sewage, algae and seaweeds. In the case of those sources, using them to produce diesel should have a positive effect on environment if managed correctly, particularly if in the latter case we harvest the kinds of seaweed that are flourishing due to environmental damage and will cause more problems in the future.
The new Prius is a good development – for now. But I would like to see the 4th generation model come with an engine that will use alternative fuel.
As for the Luddites who published that study you originally referred to, beware of anything of that nature that emanates from the US. There are political and business interests at play there. Their bottom line is today’s profit margin and they don’t care whether or not tomorrow’s world is a better place to live and breath in than today’s.
To be honest, at present there are none. Although it is likely that Fords econectic version of the Focus will be a sub 100g/km emitter within the next few years as that is the logical route of progression. The same applies for the eco-variants of all the other small family hatchbacks, with the supermini line-ups for quite a few companies already achieving a solid 70mpg and being tax exempt.
The difference will still be, that no other small family hatchback is likely to cater for the premium that the Prius commands unless it is a luxury brand such as BMW or Mercedes and to be honest if I had £20,000 to choose between a BMW 116/118d (both very eco-friendly) and a Prius I know which I would choose.
In fairness I do accept your argument that the Prius is not so offensive to the evironment as I orginally thought a perhaps a bit more pre-emptive research is required before posting anti-manufacturer remarks on any blog. I still think that diesel is definately the route of progress to take, particularly bio-fuels. Alternatively maybe a diesel-electric hybrid is in order. Who knows, it has worked for a few units of the German mass-transit system.
I’m sorry, but it is the case. The study is of exceptionally dubious quality and has incredibly flawed assumptions. From the way it decides a Prius will only last 109,000 miles when Toyota warranty it for 150,000, but a Hummer, covered for only 100,000 miles by GM, will apparently last 379,000, to the way it states that hybrid batteries aren’t recycled when they clearly are, it’s just a poor quality study.
Furthermore, the CNW study’s basic thesis, which is that the slightly increased energy required to produce a hybrid vehicle is most important in terms of overall energy use and environmental impact, is completely contradicted by numerous studies by the likes of MIT and the Argonne National Laboratory which have found the complete opposite, concluding that 80-85% of the energy used during a vehicle’s life is during the driving, rather than production stage of its life. Thus, the slightly increased energy use up front is pretty irrelevant if it leads to a significant reduction in energy use later on, which it does with vehicles like the Prius.
It’s also important to note that energy use on its own is a pretty bad barometer of environmental impacts. Toyota’s Tsutsumi factory where the new Prius is produced for example, gets around half its electricity from its own solar panels, and even for those that do not, somewhat increased electricity use up front is pretty likely to cause far less emissions than burning more petrol/diesel later on. The emissions numbers on petrol/diesel vehicles vs. battery-electric ones demonstrate this particularly clearly.
In terms of the nickel used in the hybrid battery, my guess is you’re referring to another debunked claim referring to the Canadian nickel mine where in 2004, Toyota purchased just over a half-percent of their output? The environmental damage in the area came from mining practices that had been abandoned decades ago (before the Prius even existed), and not only are emissions of sulfur dioxide at the plant down 90 percent from 1970 levels with a 97-percent reduction in those emissions by 2015, but the area itself has been cleared up considerably. Canadian Geographic even gave a Sudbury group an award for restoration, saying”Once derided for its barren landscape, Sudbury, Ontario, has experienced an environmental makeover since the 1970s. Today, the former industry-blighted moonscape has been transformed.”
Sudbury aside, more than 94 percent of the 1.55 million tons of nickel mined each year is used for stainless steel (used in vehicle exhaust systems for example), alloys (used for many engine parts etc.), and electroplating, rather than in batteries, and nickel is in fact one of the most recycled materials around, with over 80% of end of life nickel-containing products in the EU being collected and recycled.
Thus, even though Toyota have sold more than a million hybrid vehicles, it means they’d only have needed about 1% of world nickel mining output for just one year to make every battery. When you take take nickel recycling into account, that number drops to around two tenths of 1% of one year’s production (0.002).
Read: The “environmental claims raised” are kinda BS.
In terms of efficiency, it really depends how you define it. If you use MPG and CO2 figures to do so like most, the Smart ForTwo diesel is the only diesel/petrol vehicle I know of that can currently beat the 72.4MPG and 89g of CO2 per km figure the new Prius hits. Although it certainly is cheaper, it’s obviously much smaller, seats only 2, has a relative dearth of luggage space, and doesn’t sound too great to drive from the reviews I’ve read.
I’m happy to concede that diesel engines are inherently more efficient than just a standard petrol ICE, obviously with the proviso that diesel as a fuel contains more energy than petrol, but please, show me a modern diesel vehicle with the space and practically of the Prius which can beat, or even match its MPG/CO2 numbers.
“Prius Outdoes Hummer in Environmental Damage”
http://clubs.ccsu.edu/recorder/editorial/editorial_item.asp?NewsID=188
Sourced from the above Link. Don’t buy a Prius. If anything boycott toyota. I’m not interested in how they have upped fuel economy or how the Prius is now less than 100g/km on emissions. It still uses far much energy and causes WAY too much damage to justify any superficial environmental advantages this car may have.
Just buy a diesel. There are numerous diesels around that achieve 70+mpg and are free to tax that do not cause as much environmental damage as the Prius. Furthermore you can run any diesel engine on biodiesel which outside of the manufactuers warranty costs about 15p to make or 80p a litre with duty paid. It is only because the dealers are in cahoots with the oil companies that using biodiesel voids the warranty anyway but that’s another issue.
The prius is just an excuse for those who are idiotic enough to pay the high premium the prius commands to feel as though they are doing the world a favour, when they are not. Nickel smelting is a -filthy- business.
Do yourselves a favour, if you really want to save the planet start by taking your foot off the gas and just buy a sensible car where the engine is made from conventional alloys that doesn’t destroy entire forests in it’s making. For those who really are that bothered, just walk.
Hate to break it to you Adam, but that study has been thoroughly debunked:
http://www.slate.com/toolbar.aspx?action=print&id=2186786
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2006/10/05/oh-so-a-hummer-is-not-greener-a-prius/
http://www.thecarconnection.com/article/1010861_prius-versus-hummer-exploding-the-myt
You say thoroughly debunked, but that’s not really the case as it’s just opposing theories. It still doesn’t eliminate the fact that diesels are still of superior efficiency and in my honest opinion better value for money.
Various diesel motors already achieve this sort of efficiency already and cost as much as 50% less. Any incentive to buy a Prius is taken care of by the environmental concerns raised and the already existing superior technology.
“There are also worries surrounding the safe disposal of chemicals used in the batteries of the Prius and other hybrid vehicles, which conventional cars aren’t affected by.”
I’m sorry, but this is just plain untrue. Not only do regular vehicles contain lead-acid batteries which are hardly great from an environmental standpoint, but Toyota have had an active battery recycling programme in place for years for hybrid batteries, even paying dealers a bounty for each battery collected.