The hundreds of thousands of hybrid cars sold in the United States since their arrival on these shores in 1999 must be putting a dent in oil imports, right? Not quite. Or at least not yet. According to a report released by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, fuel efficient electric-gasoline cars like the Toyota (TM) Prius and Honda (HMC) Civic have saved a grand total of 5.5 million barrels of oil over the past eight years. On the other hand, the U.S. was importing 8.5 million barrels of oil a day in 2003 to power cars and light trucks. "Hybrid electric vehicles would have to replace a significant portion of the total light duty vehicle fleet to have an impact on petroleum imports," NREL researchers concluded. The lab calculated gasoline savings based on fuel efficiency data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and reports from hybrid car owners and then used modeling software to calculate how many hybrids were on the road in any given year. Despite the negligible consequence of hybrids on oil imports so far, researchers were optimistic about their potential, noting that hybrid sales have grown 72 percent a year over the past five years and that such vehicles were 45 percent more fuel efficient than similar-sized conventional cars in 2006. "Although the fuel savings from hybrid electric vehicles to date is relatively small compared to the total fuel use, as the technology matures and these numbers increase they can have a significant impact in reducing our overall transportation fuel use,” said NREL senior research engineer Matthew Thornton in a statement. Of course, that impact would be magnified if General Motors (GM), Ford (F) and other U.S. automakers focused less on creating hybrid versions of monster SUVs like the Chevrolet Tahoe and more on developing small and mid-sized hybrids. Or all-electric cars, for that matter.
Report: Hybrid Cars’ Low Impact on Oil Imports
June 21, 2007 by Todd Woody
Green Wombat 
Considering Americans still bought over 9 million SUVs and trucks last year, don’t you want a company making a hybrid version of these trucks?
No. Hybrids are an expensive and overly complicated interim distraction from the real long term solution, which is algae-derived biodiesel.
Cheers,
prat
They do make hybrid versions of trucks. They are not much more fuel efficient that the gasoline only couterparts when driven on non-oxygenated gasoline.I am not sure what it would be on gas with ethanol. Couple of percent better. The price, at least a year ago, was significantly higher for the hybrid truck, so did not make sense to buy it.
Incidentally, I have gone from 400 miles per tank on gas without ethanol to 260 on gas with ethanol. (so much for saving the environment). I have to burn more gas to go the same distance.
The title of the article should “The Sad Truth about American Drivers”….
I’m curious to see how much would it cost to replace hybrid batteries for this kind of cars come time to replace it. I’d rather buy a diesel SUV from Honda or Toyota when they start selling them in the US.
Increasing efficiency on large vehicles IS the way to go. By boosting a small car’s efficiency from 30 MPG to 45 (50%) is only going to save about 160 gallons per year for an average driver (15k miles). Whereas, if you take a 10 MPG truck, and just make it even 25% more efficient, you are saving about 300 gallons over the same distance!
Increasing efficiency on large vehicles IS the way to go. By boosting a small car’s efficiency from 30 MPG to 45 (50%) is only going to save about 160 gallons per year for an average driver (15k miles). Whereas, if you take a 10 MPG truck, and just make it even 25% more efficient, you are saving about 300 gallons over the same distance!
Has anyone ever evaluated the fuel and environmental cost of producing the batteries and electricity for electric vehicles?
Has anyone ever evaluated the fuel and environmental cost of producing the batteries and electricity for electric vehicles?
I too am interested in finding out the cost of replacing batteries in hybrids. My wife has considered purchasing a Prius, but Toyota won’t give a straight answer when I ask the question. All they say is “We don’t have that data” and “It’s got a 100,000 mile warranty.”
My guess is that the cost is substantial.
I find hybrids to be a joke anyway. They’re a band-aid solution to the overall problem which is dependence on a non-reusable fuel supply. Development of a technology that can be re-used and/or produced (cheaply – or on par with gasoline) within our country’s borders is what’s needed. This, however, is unlikely to occur unless/until energy sources derived from oil becomes scarce or too expensive.
Nothing will be solved until the government can figure out how to tax us another way instead of buying gas. They rely on the taxes from us buying gas to much and are just pretending to do something about the gas problem. Like this article says the gas demand has not changed!
The problem is not the hybrid automobiles but the consumer who still insist the demand will bring oil prices back down to the $1 range and thus continue to purchase cars and trucks without regard to gas consumption. I own a Prius and I can definitely attest to the dollar savings in having an automobile that gets 45mpg. The real problem is the U.S. automobile maker who has virtually stood still on hybrids and have continued to focus on gas guzzling, high margin, trucks and SUVs. We should demand the Board of Directors resignation at GM and Ford for their lack of insight.
QUOTE:
In November of 2005, when asked about the price of a new Prius battery, Toyota spokeswoman Mona Richard said, “The service parts price for a new battery is $3000, but we have not had to sell a battery yet.”
http://hybridcars.about.com/od/hybridcarfaq/f/batterycost.htm
It looks like the bulk of gasoline is being used not by small cars anyway but by larger trucks. It looks like consumers, especially those living in rural areas do need those trucks – either they don’t rely on smaller cars on largely unpaved roads or maybe those small cars are not that good for caring boxes, tools and supplies, or making deliveries. And you can’t just decide to make larger cars and trucks more efficient – if a truck is twice as heavy and carries three times as much load, it will use three times energy no matter what, meaning it will be three times less fuel efficient than a light car. Just a basic law of nature, which does not depend on our resolutions.
Hybrids are like this new concept (well it’s not new, but everybody would like to think it is) of “Hyper-miling” – which essentially means if you drive like a grandmother, you’ll save gas. The gas savings of this, and even Hybrid technology, is trivial. Most of the oil we use(something like 70% of it) doesn’t even go to gasoline, it goes to make plastics and other petrolum based products.
So even if everybody drove Hybrids and we instantly doubled our gas milage (which Hybrids don’t even come close to), that’s only like a 15% drop in total oil we use.
I am amazed at the lack of business understanding that persists in country. Toyota and GM and the rest are in business to make money and they only make money when consumers buy vehicles. GM building only hybrids would only help if consumers are willing to let go of the utility and vanity involved in owning a large SUVs. This is a market economy and the market will drive corporate behavior not the reverse. Its never happened that way before – why do think it would now?
Check the Hydrogen car from Honda.
I was wrong, we use about 40% of our oil supply for gasoline in cars – and another 8% for jet fuel
The hybrid, in my opinion, is a terrible “solution” in it current state. Mining nickel (or lithium) for use in batteries is an very environmentally intensive process and that material is lugged around the world in addition to the weight of the car creating a huge jump in oil used in production (not to mention other chemicals that lay waste to Canada’s landscape where the nickel is mined). Until we find a way to make a more eco-friendly battery or store energy in another way that is more eco-friendly, hybrids will continue to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
The best solution has a couple parts:
1) Drive only the largest car you need. Now, this is a matter of choice, obviously, and we can’t force people to buy certain vehicles. But, believe it or not, some people do NEED a large SUV or truck.
2) Focus on improving gas mileage of your largest vehicles first. Improvements in gas mileage for heavy gas consumers goes MUCH farther. I would rather see full-size trucks averaging 25 than small cars averaging 50.
3) Move to renewable resources.
I think the best approach short term is to maximize the economy on your existing engines, transmissions, electrical systems, accessories and make a greater shift to diesel as well – these are quick easy ways to make 10-30% improvements in economy and we see this happening – my 1992 Taurus got 21, my 2007 Fusion gets 27 and has better performance – and with new technologies like Honda’s A-VTEC (not to mention it’s diesel) and the use of turbos and DI, we will see that trend continue in the near-term.
Then you invest heavily in bacterially derived ethanol, biodiesel or eco-friendly hydrogen production for fuel cells or other alternate fuels. These, then, provide a renewable source for long-term energy use.
Hybrids, in my opinion, as they stand, are just a distraction from what we really need to do.
Just a second now. Hybrid technology will always make a non-electric vehicle more efficient. Simply – the energy generated from braking and coasting is efficiently recovered for re-use down the road rather than wasted as heat as it is in a conventional vehicle. Also, nickel is nearly completely recycled at high efficiency ratios while currently batteries already go well over 100K miles.
Hybrid technology can make a world of difference in urban and hilly driving. The larger the vehicle the more oil we will save. We need to concentrate our efforts on the demand side of the supply:demand equation. That’s how we can make a difference.
Personally, I’d like a serial diesel plugin hybrid full-size station wagon (say, the size of the Pacifica or slightly bigger), made of aluminum and composites that weighed in at no more than 3500lbs. Something large enough to handle a shopping expedition, quick enough to not be scary in traffic, and with enough battery to go 60 miles for the regular commute.
I’m not holding my breath.
Anonymous and Robert: According to Toyota’s life-cycle analysis, the additional energy required to build and dispose of a Prius is amortized at 20,000 miles relative to a comparable conventional vehicle. From then on, its energy consumption is roughly half that of a comparable traditional vehicle. (YMMV.)
Toyota’s design goal when the Prius was conceived in 1995 was not to create a hybrid car: It was to create a practical car that would emit substantially fewer pollutants and consume substantially less energy over its life-cycle. It’s good to ask questions about the energy required to produce and and recycle batteries, etc., but it’s also important to understand that these are exactly the questions Toyota was asking 12 years ago.
Take a look at these:
http://money.cnn.com/2007/06/06/autos/why_hybrid_suvs/index.htm
http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070613/FREE/70611029&SearchID=73284863785370
Somewhere, somebody needs vehicles this big. Gas costing $4 a gallon doesn’t make a soccer team smaller, or make 3 teenagers fit in the back seat of a small car. Replacing a conventional SUV with one of these hybrid SUVs will save more gas than replacing a Camry with a Prius.
Toyota Sequoia: 15/18 MPG (4.7 l V8)
Chevy Tahoe: 16/22 MPG (5.3 l V8)
Chevy Tahoe Hybrid: ?
How Much Gas Have Hybrids Saved?
According to a recent report from National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), hybrids have saved the country 5.5 million barrels of oil over the past eight years. Unfortunately, the US uses 8.5 million bar…
Hybrids will not reduce America’s oil consumption if the vast majority of Americans continue to choose conventional vehicles.
The Prius is a very good car and is big enough to carry three non-obese teenagers in the back. Customer satisfaction with the Prius is higher than any other car, unlike many of those big and convenient SUVs. See consumer reports about it.
Plugins, algae biodiesel, hydrogen, etc. are not coming in meaningful numbers anytime soon, so downsize, buy a hybrid, carpool, or shut up and pay what the market dictates for gas. At least with a smaller or more efficient car, you’ll go further for your money.
These questions that go “Did Toyota ever consider the energy costs of battery production” are laughably familiar to Climate Change deniers asking “Did those Climatologists ever think about the Sun’s role in heating the planet”. Come on People – there are plenty of other smart folks out there.
Hybrid cars won´t save the car culture. It is doomed to fail due to the fact that we are halfway through the age of oil. All the biodiesel or ethanol we can produce will only be a small dent in the total global usage. Oil extraction will fall by 2-3 percent per year on a global basis in the coming years.
Also, we´re not currently replacing oil with alternative fuels, we are using them in addition to oil derived fuels. So, we are fuelling our continued growth by pricing food out of the reach of the poorest people on earth. See all the starving people who´re deemed as “terrorists”? Lets all bomb them so we don´t have to look at them anymore.
Filling your tank with ethanol isn´t the solution, ridding ourselves of the car isn´t a choice. It will be imposed on us whether we like it or not.
It is also important to know that half the energy your car will ever use is used before its driven the first mile. If you are a believer of the alternative fuels, i suggest you take a look at the scale involved and the energy and materials needed to implement a worldwide change. The day a car can be made in a factory built and run on renewable energy and recycled materials, and the car can run and be maintained using renewable resources and materials, then we have a car worth calling environmentally friendly. But how do we build the roads without cheap oil?!?
I have an old 205 diesel. It does 60mpg, hybrids I way overhyped I think
why can hybrid vehicles run on carpool lane with single driver when it saves gas stock in the traffic. does the goverment really wants us to save more gas or is it the other way around?
To reduce the United States’ consumption of oil by any MEANINGFUL or SIGNIFICANT amount, don’t look to hybrids for a solution. Since they still consume oil, albeit less, they still contribute to this growing problem.
ELECTRIC is the way to go. They are much more simple, efficient and could perform as well as or better then oil-consuming cars.
Hybrids will become a nightmare for used car buyers/owners when they become high-mileage vehicles. What is saved in gas will be spent and then some in maintenance/repairs. This is an undeniable truth due to their over-complexity.
I bought ‘coal-gas’ for my ’65 Dodge Dart in the late eighties. We have a 200 year domestic supply of coal. What ever happened to this fuel? It ran fine in my old clunker and no modifications had to be made. It was also cost competitive when gasoline was $1.20 per gallon. Granted, it doesn’t help with CO2 emmissions, but it does return the $$$ to US industry and it can be taxed likewise.
Go gatorade powered….. get a bicycle!
Lose weight, clean the air, look good in spandex!
My Honda Civic averages 56 MPG @ 60 MPH. Keep the speed under 65 MPH and remove all unncessary weight. Removing my tools and checking my tire pressure increased millage by 3 MPG. I know that I use less gasoline and that leaves more for the gas guzzlers. My fuel expense average $30.00 a month I never dead head and strive for three scheduled stops before driving. I love my hybred. Homer Aerts
There’s no easy answer, because we’re looking for short term solutions to solve long term problems. There are no short term solutions to this problem. It usually takes decades to completely restructure an economy. The same problem happened in the ’70s, and oil went back down on it’s own despite government intervention.
It’s just simple economics. There’s a huge demand for oil, but a shortage of refineries to meet the demand. That’s why oil is selling at inflated prices. If prices were lower, people would buy SUVs again and it would cause a shortage of gasoline. Price is the only thing keeping the supply stable, and even that’s not entirely enough.
The only way to meet or reduce demand in a short supply is to price the gas guzzlers out of the market, or build more refineries. Corn and biodiesel won’t cut it. There’s no way we could build enough corn farms to meet the demand of the petrochemical industry. Lets not forget that we can’t build a hybrid or ethanol version of a Boeing 757. Washington loves to tell people how green they are before election, but they always fall woefully short of a real solution. Prices usually go down in a few years, the politicians take the credit for it, and everyone’s happy.
We just need more supply. There’s plenty of oil to go around, we just need the ability to refine it. Until that happens, expect oil companies and the Middle East to gouge us for some time to come.
Bicycle is definitely the way to go. Its not an all or nothing proposition you know. As an interim PERSONAL solution you can mix your gas guzzling SUV usage, with bicycle use. Heck, you can even mix that with a scooter for short errands. Can’t argue with 100mpg.
Of course, the fallacy is that everyone driving an SUV can automatically make a lifestyle switch to a Prius. Tell that to the family with 4 kids who all play sports. You can’t cram them in some econobox hybrid. Face it, American drivers need and want bigger cars. Getting the hybrid technology in larger vehicles is the way to cut down on greenhouse gases and foreign oil dependence.
The Gas companies and their lobbies in Congress, as well as their friends in the Oval Office, will never allow any meaningful laws that will truly cut gas usage to pass. Money talks in our system of government and the money the oil industry is making is benefiting both them and their congressional friends. Any technology that shows significant promise will be bought and shut away. Hydrogen powered cars are being promised to us as a solution, with their blessing, because they know that the technology will never work and there will never be a distribution system to support it. Wise up people! Only grass roots agitation will force government to do anything!
The short term problem is that most Americans can afford $3.00 gasoline. The long term problem is that the world has a limited supply of oil. Coal, tar sands and oil shale solutions are too expensive by comparison to oil. Until the cost of oil is greatly increased, America will not develope the coal, tar sands or shale oil alternatives. The economic and environmental problems with the massive projects required to bring these technologies into any usefull deminsions are almost insurmoutable in our democratic society. These three alternatives have been under research and trial for 3 or 4 decades and the technology and economics keep them from dominance as long as we are willing to pay for oil. These alternatives donot help the CO2 problem nor the growing demand for oil that China and India. Blaming our problem on Bush, congress or some corporation conspiricy missis the point that the problem is really with our unwillingness to bite the bullet. There are just too many of us to really get a hold of this problem. It will have to get a lot worse befor the market place has enough incintives to do something about the long term problem. Unfortunately the high cost of oil is not the real long term problem. The long term problem is that China, India and the rest of the world will wan and need the oil a badly as the United States will and that means war!
Tech. exists today for nickle, cadmium batteries to take a car 100 miles. After that the gas engine could kick in.
95% of the trips today are for less then 100 miles.
Sounds like the car manufacturers are in bed with the oil producers!!!!!!!!!
no, no, no. solar! why replace one bad habit with another one. Yay, we have hybyrids that use less gas or yay we created a vehicle that now runs on ethanol. you’ve stopped smoking, but started a 6-pack a day drinking problem. i don’t wany any “gasoline” that has to be grown, excavated, pumped, etc. solar comes natural to us, although there are cots in developing the solar panels and I hear they are expensive (both economically and environmentally). How about urine??? It’s free!
Seriously, I bike to work and it’s the best solution. Not for everyone due to distance and clothing and time constraints but it does work for some. I haven’t had to buy work-week gas in 2 years.
There’s very little reason to buy a gashog; yes, some people will claim they spend 90% of the time shuttling an entire soccer team, but truth be told, at least one parent shows up for a soccer game or else they’re negligent. Yes, 95% of the time, most SUV’s are one or two passengers at most. So are they necessary for bulk of the owners? Unfortunately, outside of image – no.
We are about to reach the global peak production of petroleum (if we haven’t already). Those without highly efficient vehicles will be at an extreme disadvantage, unless they live in a walkable community and/or near mass transit. Many will be confronted with the need to reduce their spiraling transportation costs (i.e., ever higher gas prices, think of a frog in warming water), but will cling futiley to the only way of gasoline-addicted life they’ve ever known, ironically sending ever more petro dollars to the region of the world that funds the terrorism they seek to abate. Sadly, the last person to recognize an addiction is the addict themselves.
P.S., Can you spot the likely auto company lobbyists in the above posts? Do they really care what happens to America or do they now feed off of us more like parasites in contrast to the 1950s image of “What is good for GM is good for America!”.
People keep talking about how a bunch of soccer kids who play sports cannot fit in a Prius. If they are healthy enough to play sports, why are they not healthy enough to bike to the field?
Why can’t we just buy lighter cars. You would get the same benefit as buying a heavier hybrid. There is no reason for any passenger vehicle short of a bus these days to weigh over 3000lbs. It would also make the survivability chances in a crash better.
But yes, hybrids are just a short term crutch that really isn’t helping anyway. And E85 is a worse solution than convention gasoline.
WRONG! Hybrids don’t cost anymore than most standard cars and have all the functionality of any car on the market yet you’ll get 50MPG and go 450 miles on 8 gallons of gas. A prius costs brand new $23,000 with most of what anyone would want in a car. I don’t see that as being to expensive especially with gas costing over $3 a gallon. You’ll save a lot more easily in gas.
Most people can’t afford a $23,000 car. That’s a lot of money for people making barely above the poverty line in the U.S.
Let’s also note a few things:
A hybrid truck could save more gas than a hybrid civic. Given that trucks like the Chevy Tahoe (which will have a hybrid version out soon) is more popular than the Prius, its success could have a much bigger impact.
I’d also pose another question regarding the battery/fuel issue:
Is it more efficient/effective to store a car’s energy in a battery or in chemical bonds? Right now, it’s chemical bonds. There’s more energy in gasoline and it can be transferred in much higher rate (you can fill a Honda Accord’s tank in about 7 minutes). No battery-powered device can boast that.
So while the arguments for both sides are well taken, fuels are still a better energy source, externalities not withstanding.
The battle rages on. But let’s keep fighting this one – it’s worth it.
People use four kids as justification for an SUV… Is is really necessary to have four children? Have two, drive a small vehicle, and keep the streets clean.
That aside, I believe timmy hit the nail on the head when he said it’s all a business. Unless the U.S. government starts taking this issue seriously as most other major countries do (this is clear in Bush refusing to sign the Kyoto Protocol), compromise the economy slightly, and start producing regulations, the business will continue to satisfy the masses of people who are not at all concerned with this crisis.
I’ve been told it is somewhere in the amount of $6000-$10,000 to replace batteries in a prius after some 100,000 miles when they need replacing. Thats your cost savings in gas and more right there.
What a way to slant a headline! Blame one of the few groups actually taking action to save fuel for the country (Hybrid owners) for not reducing oil imports for everyone else. People still seem to be grasping at any reason to justify their bloated gasoline habit. Sheesh.
My Honda Civic hybrid gets over 60 mpg, can go 700+ miles per tank, and costs about $28 bucks to fill up. Think about that the next time you buy gas.
As a conservative worried about national security and economic balance of payments, Ive had the service trucks in my business burning Veggie oil for the last 3 years. So far we have saved the company several $10,000s. Have heard many nay sayers say we cant grow enough oil plants to make a dent in our oil imports to that I say Bull. millions if not nillions of wast veggie oil and grease are currently being landfilled, and there are acres of land being left to grow weeds in the midwest and other parts of our country. while we may not be able to replace all of our oil imports we can make a significant dent in them with this simple biofuel.
hybrids aren’t the answer. They are economically a poor investment due to repair costs and initial costs. Enviromentally hybrids take far more energy to produce than a standard car. Algae derived fuels the step we need to take. Also-if you already own a diesel start burning grease. You get virtually free gas and u can smell like french fries! win win.
Think about this: 2000 pounds of car, 200 pounds of person. The fuels main purpose is supposed to be to carry the people. But 90% of the fuel by weight is used to move the car. Design a 500 pound car and the fuel consumption will drop by two thirds. Make it a hybrid, half the fuel consumption again. It might be light enough for use as a plug in hybrid or pure electric.
If you think a light car is unsafe, move the freight to railway, or use the light weight car for local short trips.