Ferrari 599 Hybrid Leaked Ahead of Geneva

Oh god! Ferrari is jumping on this bandwagon too? So if the carbon footprint of a Prius is the same as a Hummer H2, what is the carbon footprint of this thing? The same as a cargo ship? This is just idiocy.

Actually....
C02 emissions:
2008 Hummer H2- 1.36 lbs/mile (Road & Track)
2010 standard Toyota Prius- 0.390 lbs/mile

Emitted tons per year of C02 average from EPA:
In 2007 the best rated SUV, Escape Hybrid-5.4-6.0 tons
The 2007 Prius- 3.4 tons
Lexus Rx400h- 6.3-6.4 tons

aw hell no

inlinesix,

The numbers you provided are useful, but incomplete when looking at the "carbon footprint" of a vehicle. You have to take into account manufacturing and disposal the added components.

To dig and mine the necessary raw materials for two hundred pounds of nickel metal hydride batteries in each vehicle is extremely harmful to the environment. The house-sized machinery generally run on diesel fuel, and not the clean kind of diesel that Mercedes cars use. Then the raw materials are shipped from Canada via cargo ship (diesel) to non-OSHA compliant China where it is refined and turned into goo. Then the goo is shipped via cargo ship, to Japan where they are turned into finished cells and installed into the Prius. Then the Prius is shipped via cargo ship to California. Then after about 150,000 miles, the batteries must be disposed of properly. It's a wasteful, toxic process, and most of the materials cannot be reclaimed.

So the next time you decide to look at the environmental benefits of hybrid vehicles, look at the whole picture. The mileage benefit that the hybrid driver sees hides the environmental damage that the technology causes on a larger scale. That's why the Prius is comparable to the piggish Hummer H2.

Part of the reason isn't to be eco-friendly (though it's good advertising). It's to help 0-60 times.

ne1butu2

I don't know who made up this endlessly repeated urban myth about a Prius being as bad as (insert some big gas guzzler here, it always changes) but it's fiction.

Mining nickel hasn't been "extremely harmful" to the enviroment since before you were born. Refining oil into gas for the Hummer is more harmful.

There is likely more nickle in a Hummer then a Prius (it's commonly used in metal alloys).

Since the Hummer weighs around twice what the Prius weighs, it contains around twice the raw materials which were all mined and refined somewhere.

Components for every car made today are shipped around the world. Don't think for a second that all the components of an American car are made in American. Many are bought from suppliers in Asia.

I remember Jeremy Clarkson made a simular case against the Prius but you have to remember they do everything in the name of humour, not facts (not to mention the Euros don't like hybrids because they know they have nothing competitive to offer).

ne1butu2:

http://reliableanswers.com/general/prius_v_hummer.asp

I know simple emissions per mile are not the only things to take into account. But the study that relates the footprint of hummer and the prius has been knocked down by several studies including one by MIT researchers.

The reason I brought up emissions per mile is that a significant portion of the environmental impact comes from burning fuel during vehicle use (about 80% for non-hybrids). The amount of impact/emissions from making a hybrid and disposing of its components, would have to be huge to make a Prius more damaging than a Hummer which has 3 times the carbon emissions per mile.

I'd be interested in some more accurate figures. No I don't have a hybrid.

Firstwagon...

The extraction process, refining process, manufacturing process and disposal process of these batteries are extremely environmentally unfriendly, in spite of what you've read argued by pro-hybrid advocates. Added on top of the production process of an ICE, the slight mileage benefit in a hybrid engine doesn't do enough to eliminate the reliance on fossil fuels to recover what was wasted producing it. Automakers need to pick one or the other, but a hybrid "engine" which is actually two full drive trains, is completely wasteful. The diminishes the environmental benefit in a Prius, and it's disgustingly wasteful in a Ferrari.

Inlinesix...

Scientists can bat arguments back and forth forever. I do understand that that Hummer/Prius research was flawed, overestimating the life of a Hummer and underestimating the life of the Prius. The reality is that if a Prius comes anywhere near the piglike Hummer, then a Prius isn't the green car that everyone thinks it is, and there are other things to consider other than the miles we drive.

Also, I would have to dig for the exact information, but consumer vehicle emissions make up a small slice of emission gasses. A huge chunk is naturally created, a huge chunk is industrial, a huge chunk is aviation and transportation.

"...a Prius isn't the green car that everyone thinks it is, and there are other things to consider other than the miles we drive."

Agreed.

Just a bit more info:

"The process of generating electricity is the single largest source of CO2 emissions in the United States, representing 41 percent of all CO2 emissions."

"The transportation sector is the second largest source of CO2 emissions in the U.S. Almost all of the energy consumed in the transportation sector is petroleum based, including gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Automobiles and light-duty trucks account for almost two-thirds of emissions from the transportation sector and emissions have steadily grown since 1990."

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/co2_human.html

"The extraction process, refining process, manufacturing process and disposal process of these batteries are extremely environmentally unfriendly, in spite of what you've read argued by pro-hybrid advocates."

I don't waste my time reading pro (or anti) information.

I looked up real information to see how much actual harm is done as opposed to the harm done by gas guzzlers. The hype about damage due to hybrid batteries is fiction as the numbers are too small to be measurable.

I don't own a hybrid not have any need for one but I can still appreciate thier value for those who drive a lot of miles. I do not accept the endless BS by the anti hybrid people who refuse to accept that wasting gas (and oil) is wrong.

To say it has a "slight mileage improvement" shows a lack of touch with reality.

"To say it has a "slight mileage improvement" shows a lack of touch with reality."

+100