Is the Toyota Prius truly environmentally friendly?

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xtremecatholic

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A lot of people claim that the Toyota Prius is environmentally friendly since it has very good gas mileage. I was sort of tempted to go along with that, but I also remembered that you have to plug it in so that the electric engine can run. Since you have to plug it in to charge it, how big is it's carbon footprint? Since coal is burned to produce most of America's electricity, is the Prius truly environmentally friendly?
 
first of all, your completely wrong. the prius right now doesn't allow you to plug it in. the gasoline engine recharges the battery. and since it still uses gasoline, i don't care how efficient, it's still not good for the air.

even if you did get your electricity from coal, you would be cutting carbon footprint by a lot. there are some kits that allow you to plug in a prius and to allow it to only run on electricity. and according to studies, plug in hybrids use very little electricity. do you own a plasma tv? well, that plasma tv's probably using more electricity than the prius believe it or not.

the most ecofriendly you can get is a bike or walking.

but if your lazy like most of society, your best bet is public transportation or FULLY electric cars. with an electric car, you'll be cutting your carbon footprint by a lot. electric motors use less electricity that clothes driers. as i said, even if you get coal electricity, your cutting your footprint cause electric motors are very efficient, use little energy. plus, a gasoline car on average emits EIGHT TONNES of CO2 into the air.

also, obama's pledges to create cleaner electricity, so your cutting more CO2 there. but here's where you can score the biggest. if you put a couple solar panels on your roof, you can run your whole house completely off the grid. so basically, you don't pay for your electricity, and neither does the earth.
 
not unless you live in the city and never drive over about 30 mph but past that it burns just as much gas as anything else
 
You do not plug the prius in. It has a hybrid motor. As long as the car is moving under 5mph (I think) it runs off of the electric motor. Once it goes above that speed, the gas motor turns on and not only powers the car but charges the hybrid battery pack.

It is not as environmentally friendly as most people think it is because there is a lot of toxic waste created when making the lithium-ion battery that powers the electric motor. More importantly, the batteries themselves are extremely toxic and just like any other battery will eventually die and must be replaced. In a Prius, the lithium Ion batery pack costs about $7000 to replace.

To put this in perspective, at $2.00 a gallon you could buy 2800 gallons of fuel for what the battery costs to replace. In a vehicle that only get 20 miles per gallon, that is 56000 miles. You could drive a "gas guzzler" 56000 miles for what it costs just to replace the battery pack in a prius.

My customers are shocked when I give them the bad news about their hybrid battery.
 
No, it's all advertising/marketing.

There will never be a truly environmentally friendly car until solar cells can be utilized with higher capacity.
Nothing beats free power (i.e. Sun).
and yeah, takes electricity to make solar panels, well, it's not like it's a harsh thing, there's no emissions coming from a 100% battery driven car that recharges via the Sun.

the prius is not environmentally friendly at all. it helps save gas, but it is not the gas mileage champ, the Honda CRX and Geo Metro and Chevy Sprint have those records. Avg of 56mpg on highway for them, running on regular gas. no battery hoopla and no fancy gimmicks.
they are still the gas mileage champs.
 
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