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Originally Posted by parahy
I'm not denying the fact that the Hummer H2 will cost more on gas, all I'm saying is that a Prius is meaner to the environment than a Hummer H2. The amount of acid that has been caused by all the nickel mining and smelting in Ontario is incredible. You wouldn't know that, since all you see is the 50 MPG EPA figure slapped on the window of a Prius.
And, we really aren't buying gas from the Middle East since most of our oil comes from Alberta. And dependence on foreign oil and environmentalism are two topics that should not intermingle.
For life expectancy, you really can't say if the Prius will last longer. It hasn't even been on the market for a decade, whereas Hummers (and other conventional cars) have for many decades.
Even if Toyota recycles batteries, there is still a lot of environmental damage being done when they are made.
An xB also costs more, so that obviously have something to do with the figures. They are also taking into account resale value, etc.
Nether of the two cars is good for mother nature. Riding a bike or walking is good for mother nature. But out of the two, the Hummer is better since it uses less energy, from its production till its "death" when compared with the Prius.
If you really want to reduce your carbon emissions footprint and still drive a car, you should just buy a late model Golf TDI and get it to use biodiesel. That would actually make a difference.
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Firstly, I do have a 1997 Jetta TDI that gets anywhere from 40-50 mpg depending on how I drive it. I do also purchase biodiesel, but it is not a silver bullet or anything, especially when grown from crops. The fact that we can recycle used oil and other predictable feedstocks pleads a very interesting case for biodiesel, though. While I do think diesel cars are currently a better solution than hybrids, there is no denying that hybrids are doing good work, and there is lots of research still to be done to improve their efficiency even further.
Secondly, before you go and start posting studies about energy issues, go and find a CREDITABLE source, not some bottom-feeders posing as a "market research" company with funding from auto companies. It's like all these idiots seeing Zeitgeist and totally refuting the fact that it is an exceedingly one sided documentary with no substance behind the claims that they make.
This article of Prius vs. Hummer has been challenged so many times because anyone can intuitively see it is simply not true. Here are three websites which you might find interesting:
http://www.pacinst.org/topics/integr...sus_prius.html
http://atbozzo.blogspot.com/2007/06/...-yes-i-am.html
http://www.thecarconnection.com/Auto...96.A12220.html
Considering you are from Canada as I am, the third one should be the first that you read, since it talks about Sudbury. Since I am not sure that you will read it, here's a bit of a quote:
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The automaker has, in fact, only been purchasing significant amounts of nickel from the Sudbury, Ontario, Inco mine for its batteries in recent years, while the environmental disaster the headline is referring to largely occurred more than thirty years ago. And that ore is at the core of a semi-urban legend that leads to dumb headlines like "HUMMER Greener than Prius," and others we've seen recently.
Toyota says that nickel has been mined from in Sudbury since the 1800s, and that "the large majority of the environmental damage from nickel mining in and around Sudbury was caused by mining practices that were abandoned decades ago." Out of the Inco mine's 174,800-ton output in 2004, Toyota purchased 1000 tons, just over a half-percent of its output. The plant's emissions of sulfur dioxide are down 90 percent from 1970 levels, and it's targeting a 97-percent reduction in those emissions by 2015, according to Toyota.
Of course, metal-hydride hybrid batteries aren't the only use for nickel. One widespread use of nickel is for the chrome (chromium-nickel) plating that's widely used in trim and wheels for luxury vehicles. And according to the Nickel Institute, which represents trade groups, manufacturers, and nickel producers, about two-thirds of all nickel mined goes toward stainless steel, which is of course widely used in vehicles - exhaust systems, for instance. Another significant portion goes toward engine alloys - pistons, rings, liners and the like; in general, the larger the engine, the more nickel it's likely to have.
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Not to mention the environmental recovery projects that have been taking place in Sudbury for decades...it is quite incredible. CNW attempted to twist the story for their own uses, and failed miserably.