Those stickers won`t even tell the whole truth, it is the lie by omission :
” Building a Toyota Prius causes more environmental damage than a Hummer that is on the road for three times longer than a Prius. As already noted, the Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. This plant has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has used the ‘dead zone’ around the plant to test moon rovers. The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles.
The plant is the source of all the nickel found in a Prius’ battery and Toyota purchases 1,000 tons annually. Dubbed the Superstack, the plague-factory has spread sulfur dioxide across northern Ontario, becoming every environmentalist’s nightmare.
“The acid rain around Sudbury was so bad it destroyed all the plants and the soil slid down off the hillside,” said Canadian Greenpeace energy-coordinator David Martin during an interview with Mail, a British-based newspaper.
All of this would be bad enough in and of itself; however, the journey to make a hybrid doesn’t end there. The nickel produced by this disastrous plant is shipped via massive container ship to the largest nickel refinery in Europe. From there, the nickel hops over to China to produce ‘nickel foam.’ From there, it goes to Japan.
Finally, the completed batteries are shipped to the United States, finalizing the around-the-world trip required to produce a single Prius battery. Are these not sounding less and less like environmentally sound cars and more like a farce?
Wait, I haven’t even got to the best part yet.
When you pool together all the combined energy it takes to drive and build a Toyota Prius, the flagship car of energy fanatics, it takes almost 50 percent more energy than a Hummer - the Prius’s arch nemesis.
Through a study by CNW Marketing called “Dust to Dust,” the total combined energy is taken from all the electrical, fuel, transportation, materials (metal, plastic, etc) and hundreds of other factors over the expected lifetime of a vehicle. The Prius costs an average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles - the expected lifespan of the Hybrid.
The Hummer, on the other hand, costs a more fiscal $1.95 per mile to put on the road over an expected lifetime of 300,000 miles. That means the Hummer will last three times longer than a Prius and use less combined energy doing it.
So, if you are really an environmentalist - ditch the Prius. Instead, buy one of the most economical cars available - a Toyota Scion xB. The Scion only costs a paltry $0.48 per mile to put on the road. If you are still obsessed over gas mileage - buy a Chevy Aveo and fix that lead foot.
One last fun fact for you: it takes five years to offset the premium price of a Prius. Meaning, you have to wait 60 months to save any money over a non-hybrid car because of lower gas lower gas expenses.
http://clubs.ccsu.edu/recorder/editorial/editorial_item.asp?NewsID=188
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That study came to its conclusions by making a HUGE estimate on the cost of disposing of it. $3.25/mile for 100,000 miles = $325,000. Even if the car were made from pure energy (no labor, no materials, just pump in electricity and out come the cars), that would leave about $300,000 to run and dispose of it. 40 mpg and $4/gallon would be $10,000 for fuel. Toss on a few thousand extra for repairs and consumables (also made from pure energy for this thought experiment) and you still have over $280,000 left for the disposal expense.
Canada is working to fix the problem, but it will be decades before the east recovers, if ever.
I’ll bet the lifetime cost/mile of my 1965 Chevy PU with 1,300,000 miles in it is under 25 cents!
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Excellent post. Hope you don’t mind if I use this information to irritate my liberal friends.
Start with the description of Sudbury, for the half-truths. The land around Sudbury is a moonscape — that's the half that's true. What's not said is that sulphur and other emissions have been reduced to a smal fraction of what they were. The land is now being reclaimed — which will be a lengthy process. Also, Sudbury isn't the only source of nickel — and newer mines don't have the pollution problems of the old Sudbury.
Then there's the travelogue about the nickel's movement from mine to Prius battery. So the nickel is shipped around for processing. So what!? The cost of the final product is obviously less than it would have been if it hadn't been shipped to specialist processors at each step — otherwise, why would a profit-seeking company like Toyota bother?
In the end, Toyota is able to sell a Prius for under $30k, battery included — and make a substantial profit.
The nickel in the battery pack will be recycled. The same nickel will be used again and again. These batteries are large & it will certainly be worthwhile to recycle them. Owners aren't just going to toss them in the garbage, like they would with a used AA cell, from their flashlight.
The cost/mile driven has been debunked here on Free Republic several times. It's totally, completely, and utterly bogus.
First, in practice, the Prius batteries are lasting a lot longer than 100,000 miles. That has to do with the fact that the Prius isn't an electric vehicle — the batteries only provide a fraction of the motive power.
Once again, the batteries will be recycled. The total energy requirements are overstated — greatly overstated.
Where did the $3.25/mile lifetime cost come from? Never-mind, I don't think I really want to know. Think about it. Consider an average, middle-class Prius owner who drives 20,000 miles/year. At $3.25/mile that would be $65,000/year total. That's more than the average driver makes before taxes. There's no way that people wouldn't notice that cost. Clearly, the figure is completely bogus. It's so bogus, that it's hard to imagine how anyone ever came up with it — double-counting wouldn't do it. It's off by at least a factor of 5.
Finally, the “5 years to offset the premium price of the Prius” is certainly yesterday's news. It might have made sense when gas was $2.50/gallon — it doesn't compute with today's prices. Also, the author blatantly contradicts himself. If the Prius really did cost $3.25/mile; its price would never, ever be offset.
Don't show this article to any of your liberal friends — they'll just laugh in your face.