lynx10

At least you qualified your statement as an opinion.

Why do you feel that people who believe that hybrid cars are better for the environment are uninformed?

dawi

Probably because it has been proven that in real world driving small diesels are more economical and with the advances in emission control may well better the hybrids in that area as well?

People often choose to ignore that the electricity to charge these batteries has to come from somewhere and at the moment is largely produced by the burning of fossil fuels. Pollution is therefore seemingly shifted away from the hybrid car (and conveniently from the driver's conscience) to a far far away generator.

Nonetheless it is a "bandwagon" as proven by the many politicians who love to be photographed driving one of these hybrids but drive to and from the photo-shoot in a large engined executive/luxury car (well away from the cameras, of course!) not..

westcoast550

A key issue I have with Hybrids is battery life. I understand that the batteries are only good for 7or 8 years, then what , we put them in the land fill ?.The replacement batteries are apparently very $ thus unlikely to be repurchased . So aside from not being green they are very expensive end to end . If I'm uninformed I would like to know more.
Cheers

ebski

I tend to think the jury is still out. Whenever something like a hybrid is hailed as THE solution, there are unintended consequences. Either the cost will increase due to reliability or battery replacement issues, or the envronment will suffer due to the disposal of the batteries, or who knows? My best guess is that for a small vehicle, hybrids are marginally better than an equally sized gasoline or diesel car. Tiny little gasoline Hondas already get over 45mpg or so...

Not exactly on topic, but last I heard, BMW has no plans to build a electric hybrid car. Their R&D is being invested in hydrogen, as they believe it has the most potential, and is more applicable to larger vehicles.

It will be very interesting to see what BMW finally brings to market as an alternative vehicle.

Ricracing

The manufacturing of hybrids is a rape for the environment.
But someone has to do the experiments.

But ie the new 120d (d as in turbo-diesel) BMW engine with 177 hp and 350 Nm pollutes only 129 g/co2.
It also has a particel filter as standard.

Hope this new engine will soon come to the LCI E60 520d.
Only availabe in the E87 (1-series) at this moment.

aybeesea

I could be misreading but I hope we agree that Hybrid cars don't generally get plugged into electricity supplies.

ABC

JetBlack5OC

You have to start some where, so early adopters of hybrids are doing the R&D for future hybrid technology. Hybrids and electric cars are the future whether you want to believe it or not.

Lord Monkey

I agree with your view, and unless people buy hybrid cars there will be no incentive for manufactures to invest in the new technology. However, I do think that the true cost of cars should be factored in, and that includes the battery packs, resources that go into making them. The Prius has a reputation as being a 'green' car, but in reality is probally no better over the life of the vehicle than any other small economical car when looking at use of resources, waste products etc.

Compare the specs for a Prius and new 118d, there is not a lot in it.

nathand

From what I have read ( I can be misinformed) the battery materials are mined from all over the world using large diesel equipment (pollution is created) and then refined or w/e you want to call it using more energy (provided by fossil fuels) and finally shipped to china and japan to be assembled into battery form. (unless its a navy carrier, it's probably burning good old diesel as well) Battery is installed in car in japan, shipped to its foreign market and Joe Blow the consumer then buys it. I guess Joe Blow isn't polluting much driving, however I would think the pollution for getting the materials too him is more pollution than a regular car in the long run. Sounds better for the environment right? If I'm way off please feel free to flame me!

UUronL

http://cnwmr.com/nss-folder/automotiveenergy/


Nearly all the knee jerk reactions to this study cite how the calculations can't possibly be correct - that no one could possibly think that operating a car costs that much per mile. That's correct - and the people saying that are missing the point. The study doesn't show how much it costs each person to fill the car at the gas station, but rather the costs in the study amortize all energy required to design, engineer, manufacture, operate, repair, and ultimately crush/scrap the vehicles - spreading that energy and its cost across the total number of expected miles the cars might reasonably be driven for.


I suppose the basic premise is:

-Hybrids take more energy to produce
-Hybrids are driven (or are expected to be driven) for fewer miles before being scrapped
-These two factors more than offset the energy savings realized during vehicle operation (relative to conventional automobiles)


It's certainly a polarizing study - should be interesting to see how their predictions hold up.