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Hummer uses less energy than hybrids

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by prius04, Jul 19, 2006.

  1. prius04

    prius04 New Member

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    Ignore this thread and go here for this artcle discussion
    http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=2...=0&#entry289146

    Hello,

    I haven't posted on priuschat is awhile, and came upon this article that should be of interest to PC members.

    http://www.reason.org/commentaries/dalmia_20060719.shtml


    It is the contention of this foundation that when you include all the energy of manufacture all the way to disposal, a hummer uses less energy than a hybird.

    The title of the foundation is the "Reason Foundation". It seems to be a Libertarian group, and sometimes Libetarian groups get co-opted by industry. Industry leaders know there is nothing that would help corporations more than small government and manipulating the well intentioned ideology of the Libertarian movement is a great way to do that.

    But I don't want this thread to be about Libertarianism. I thought it presented an interesting argument about energy use. Though I thought it was interesting the way they referred to hybirds in one breath, and then criticized the Prius in another. One thing Priuschat members know is the Prius is quite unlike other hybrids.

    He also stated that sales of the Prius are faltering. Is this true? And do their energy figures hold water for the Prius?


    (One point made was that the Hummer uses less energy because so many of the parts are interchangeable with other vehicle parts. Of course the answer to that argument is NOT to avoid buying a Prius if you are concerned about peak oil or energy use, it's to buy more so a similar economy of scale would apply to the Prius. Using their argument on this point would result in no innovation, hardly a wise path to follow.)
     
  2. bsoft

    bsoft New Member

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    The whole report is based on a bunch of bullshit figures.

    Aveo 4-door, automatic: 26/34 (Most users, probably 28-30)
    Prius: 51/60 (Most users: 45-50)

    Cause you know it's just sooooooo hard to check the actual numbers on the Chevy website! How stupid do they think we are?

    The service lifetime of an H2 is not 300k miles. Hell, my friend's Civic is falling apart at 230k. Another friend of mine has a 68 Ford Galaxie - it only has 260k.

    That's just crap. Battery warranty is 150k in CA, Toyota indicates that it should last 200K. Regardless, that's the battery lifetime, which is a recyclable component and is only a small part of the overall system.

    The Hummer's engine does have an electric (starter, alternator, ECU) component and a gas component. It also requires considerably more steel to make.

    H2 is based on the GMT800 platform, which is shared with the Yukon. This is indeed correct.

    Bullshit! The Prius is based substantially on the Echo (as is the xA), including the engine. I don't know where the energy cost figure comes from, but as for the design and development - DUH! The Prius is a brand-new vehicle, whereas the H2 is a standard GM platform with new body work. The H2 costs little to develop because it's just a warmed-over GM product. When GM goes out there and designs something truly new (which they do, from time to time), the energy usage profile will look a lot more like the Prius.




    More bullshit figures without any actual sources cited. Toyota already ran the numbers, in terms of lifetime figures, and found that the Prius consumes less energy than a conventional vehicle, "dust to dust".

    "Think Tanks" like the Reason Foundation are notriously biased (his appies to both sides of the aisle, by the way). They are more interested in supporting their ideology than they are in providing an objective evaluation.

    The whole article struck me as anti-Japan and pro-US. Honda and Toyota are the enemy, our good friend GM is looking out for the environment! Tell me, Reason Foundation, if hybrids are such a bad idea, why is GM investing billions to catch up? Why did Ford license Toyota's hybrid technology?

    It's all just more anti-hybrid crapola. When they can't attack you with a decent argument (who can argue against real, mesureable economy improvements?), they hit you with poorly-cited, politically motivated crap.
     
  3. rlongenbach

    rlongenbach New Member

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    Yeah, uhhh, their numbers have to be checked first.

    My car before my current one :D was an Aveo.

    I barely got 22 Mpg in SoCal with it. I got 30-35 on trips to San Diego without traffic, but no where close to 28 on a regular basis. But the 22 was wayyyyy better for me than the 16 in the minivan.
     
  4. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    key word: COMMENTARY
     
  5. jtullos

    jtullos New Member

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    Actually, they do use less energy than hybrids. Why? There are significantly less of them on the road, and a larger percentage of their time is spent at gas stations rather than actually going anywhere when compared to a hybrid.
     
  6. JasonInNJ

    JasonInNJ New Member

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    I once quit coffee. I started drinking coffee again when I saw news reports stating that "American's get more antioxidants from coffee than from tea."

    It turns out that Americans get more antioxidants from coffee because we drink about 10x more coffee.

    Now I don't trust any of these so-called Think Tanks. :)