Eco Nonsense

Prius owners....smug

I see the Toyota Prius has slipped to no.2 in the top selling cars in Japan list. This has happened because the Government subsidy has ended. The Honda Fit is now back on top as economic reality is restored. A friend of mine who lives in Osaka has just purchased a new Prius and reports that the Toyota dealer there just about bent over backwards to sell the car, offering a huge price for his trade in and discounting the Prius by Y250,000. Seems that Toyota will start subsidising their own product to keep it on top. Hyrids really don't make any sense unless you are doing huge mileages every day. As for being clean and green....that's a myth. The large NiMH battery  production process is an eco-mentalists nightmare. The Nickel for the batteries comes from a mine in Sudbury, Canada. This mine is infamous for the damage it has caused to it's surrounding environment.  Nickel extraction is  a dirty, toxic business. Next the nickel is shipped to Europe for refining. From there it's on to China to be processed and finally to Japan where the battery is manufactured. The completed car is then shipped to it's target market. For North America bound Prius's, it's been a round the world trip. At the end of the cars life the battery is to be shipped back to Japan for re-cycling. Thats a lot of shipping. When you consider the energy consumed and greenhouse gasses produced just in shipping these things around it doesn't look so environmentally friendly after all. Add to that the environmental damage done by mining/smelting/refining/ processing the nickel in the batteries and it becomes clear that the hybrid isn't as clean or green as it's touted to be.Someone in the US calculated how much energy went into producing a prius for the North American market and found that the equivalent of nearly 3500 litres of petroleum was used. Seems like this car doesn't start saving the planet until you've driven it for 60,000kms.

The argument then goes that they produce less greenhouse gasses and so therefore must be good. Also mentioned are the assumptions that less demand for petrol will lead to lower prices and less petrol consumed which, in turn leads to less reliance on unstable third world oil producing countries. So, if we all drove a hybrid we would stop climate change, have a clean environment, cheaper petrol, energy security and world peace! Except it doesn't work that way. Hybrids run on petrol. It's an oil dependant vehicle so we can't ditch the oil sheikhs just yet.  They do produce greenhouse gasses just like standard cars. Whether this makes any difference to climate change is hotly disputed, despite what Al Gore  and Greepeace would have you believe. Cheaper fuel due to less demand is also a myth. Your Government will make sure taxes will keep it at a certain level.  Just because we might use less petrol in the developed countries doesn't mean that the oil will stay in the ground. It is not "saved". Instead it will go to China or India where they will be happy to consume it at the lower price. The oil will be used and pollutants will be released by someone else.

So if these things cost so much and don't save that much fuel and aren't so eco friendly after all why is there so much hype around them? There's two reasons for it. The first one is political. The hybrid has become as much of a political issue for the left as the 4WD is. For socialists and eco-mentalists it's a golden opportunity to do what they do best, that is, forcing people to do something they otherwise would not want to do. On it's own merits, the prius isn't much of a car but when the current media hysteria and political propaganda over global warming is combined with Toyota's ultra slick marketing machine it's a winner.  Secondly, there's the glamour factor. Hybrids have become a status symbol. Driving a Prius allows you to appear virtuous. It says that you care about the planet as much as the many movie stars and celebrities that drive hybrids. It's a triumph of style over substance when a very average car can become an object of adoration.Toyota has spotted a niche and has run a brilliant campaign which has left its competitors in the dust.

There's a lot of misleading advertising and willful mis-information around hybrid cars. The reason for this is that if the Prius was put on the market without this Eco friendly marketing no one would buy it.

So there you have it.....You will not be helping to save the planet. You will not be ending Big Oil's monopoly. You will be strenghtening Toyota's monopoly.  People who actually know these things  will think you're a sucker.  On the other hand you will get to portray a virtuous image. You will join that elite group of celebrities and superstars who also own one. You will never be harassed by greenies like you would in a 4WD. You will be able to impress  ignorant people.

The most compelling reason for buying a car is that you really like it. If you like the Prius then buy it. If you don't like it  you don't need to feel guilty.