Toyota is reported at CNN to be going to double the number of hybrid cars in its vehicle line-up soon after 2010 meaning it has targetted sales of 1 million hybrid cars annually.
I wonder what percentage of total sales this will make hybrids?
Toyota has also indicated it wants to halve the cost of hybrids.
Competitors including DaimlerChrysler are claiming diesel is the way to go with a 20-30 percent better fuel economy than gasoline cars and they are more affordable. I guess you can also run the diesel cars on biodiesel and in this way move from oil dependence.
And its the move from “oil dependence” and also “reducing pollution” that Toyota claim is driving their “endorsement” of the hybrid tecnology.
… and I wonder how much of the Prius marketing is about positioning the brand ‘Toyota’ as environmentally responsible?
Honda Civic Australia is trying to go one better. The company will guarantee the planting of 18 trees through Greenfleet when you buy your next Civic Hybrid. That’s apparently enough trees to absorb all the vehicle’s greenhouse gas emissions for three years.
I wonder how many trees you would need to plant to cover the emmissions from the manufacture of the car itself?
… and I wonder where they are planting the trees?
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
Hopefully the hybrid car movement can recover from Toyota’s recent Prius recall (which reportedly affected 2,596 Australian cars and 990,000 internationally). I agree that a cynical eye must be cast over the publicity one-up manship however it is still the lesser of two evils as we await the swing of the pendulum away from true oil dependence.
Toyota dominate the hybrid market – the good thing is that hybrid purchase has been entirely voluntary and an excellent example of free market forces.
I’m sure Toyota meant they seek to halve the price PREMIUM for hybrid vehicles not halve the actual price. As to market forces, the US tax credit of $3000 USD or more has more to do with hybrid sales than do hybrid benefits. Even with the tax credit ROI is on the order of 5-7 years of typical driving at current prices.
Tax benefits in the US for Prius will halve after September 30.
I saw some figures recently which proved that the average motorists could run a 1960s Mini for 5 years on the energy used to produce a new BMW Mini. That was just the energy used in the car factory, & does not include the energy used in producing the steel, plastic, rubber etc used in the car.
As a Hibrid, with its extra complication, & componertry, consumes more energy in production, I believe it is much more ecologically sound to upgrade your old car, & keep it on the road, & out of the scrap yard.
I drive a 26 year old car. It has been upgraded to use unleaded petrol, & has electronic ignition, so runs a little cleaner than perhaps it did in 1980. It uses 7.4 L/100 Km, which is not that much more than a hibrid, particularly as much of my running is on higher speed roads, where hibrids are at their worst.
It is young enough to be built with modern materials, but old enough to have escaped the deluge of electronic gismos in modern cars, particularly hibrids. My car, given continued maintenance, will still be on the road, when my neighbors new hibrid is in a junk yard, due to the non-availability of one of these gismos. Some of these gismos, in cars of less than ten years of age, can no longer be produced, as the machinery used has been scrapped.
This is asuming that I am still around, & we still have something to put in the tank, in ten years or so.
As insurance, I put my old stallion in with a few mares last spring. I should have some of the original horse power come this spring. The main advantage of this horse power is that it can convert its own Bio fuel.
Hybrid cars require many kilograms of trace metals in their batteries. Interesting to note that the metals are mined in China and some of the mines were recently closed down due to the environmental degradation associated with the mining. Does that mean Toyota are going to attempt to reopen the mines in their drive to cheapen up hybrids?
We must be diligent to always look beyond the headlines of “green” claims