- Are Toyota Prius's still bad for the environment
This is like asking "Have you stopped beating your wife?". It wasn't bad for the environment (for a car) to begin with regardless of all the FUD that has been spread around.
Actually, the not green claims have been debunked so many times that it's amazing people still bring this up. Note that no car is good for the environment but the Prius is as good as an internal combustion engine car gets.
The Prius vs. Hummer study was so flawed it doesn't even pass a sniff test. The two main points of the study Hummers get 300,000 miles while Prius only gets 100,000 miles and the batteries only last five years have been proven to be false. Most Hummers don't go for more than 100,000 miles without expensive maintenance while Prius owners are starting to report over 300,000 and more trouble-free miles. The batteries have proven to be very reliable, very recyclable, and not particularly expensive to replace.
As far as the Sudbury mine and the Prius goes it's basically FUD:
1. Some of the nickel for the NiHM batteries comes mainly from the Sudbury, Ontario, Canada mine. There are other nickel mines throughout the world. Toyota isn't saying how much comes from where.
2. The information used by the detractors comes from the 1960s when the mine, like most all mines, were pretty bad environmentally. During the 1980s the mine was cleaned up and it now wins environmental awards from Environment Canada and others. (
AFAIK, there weren't many Prius made in the 1960s and 1970s, any you find should be worth a fortune).
3. Only about 1% of the mine's total output is used for NiMH batteries of all kinds. Much of the other 99% is used mainly for tableware and automotive chrome although there are many other uses for nickel, such as coins. This means that even if the claims were true, which they aren't, the environmental impact wouldn't change if no hybrid batteries were produced.
4. All car manufactures ship materials and cars over the world. Toyota is no worse than any other. Note that most of the Toyotas sold in North America are made in North America and with 80% of parts being supplied from North America. The Prius is an exception to this. The Camry hybrid is made in the Kentucky plant.
5. The Prius sold in Japan, Europe, and North America are made in Japan in the Tsutsumi Plant. There is a plant in China but Prius from there are only sold in China and I believe they are different than the ones sold elsewhere.
6. The Prius is made in a zero-landfill factory (so are many other Toyotas).
7. There is a plan to manufacture the Prius in the Mississippi plant that's currently being built. There is no date set when the production might start. (I believe they will start producing Corollas there until the "kinks" are worked out, though that may change).
8. Most of the plastics in the Prius are bio-plastic rather than petroleum based.
9. A good portion of the repair manual consists of instructions on how to recycle the various components. For example, the wiring harness can be removed with a single pull so the copper can be recycled.
My 2004 Prius has cost 12 cents per mile for dealer maintenance, tires, and fuel combined over the 125,000 trouble-free miles I've driven so far and it still runs like new. It would take a lot to get me back to an old fashioned car.
2004 Prius MPG from the logbook. (Complete years only):
2003-2004 -- 50.8 mpg 17,628 miles
2005 -- 52.6 mpg 14,688 miles
2006 -- 56.3 mpg 16174 miles
2007 -- 57.3 mpg 18384 miles
2008 -- 59.9 mpg 21755 miles
2009 -- 61.4 mpg 16177 miles
2010 -- 65.2 mpg 12134 miles
www.ctvbc.ctv.ca
Are Toyota Prius's still bad for the environment?
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