The Fallacies of Hybrids
Hybrids are, as I stated earlier, new products. New products produced with newly attained materials fabricated into a collection of parts to create the whole that is a hybrid vehicle. There is an amount of recycled material that is used, and to the credit of those companies that ratio continues to rise with every new generation or introduction of a model. However, hybrids have one large issue that conventional vehicles, petrol or diesel, do not have; batteries. That’s right, their strength is also their weakness.
So why are batteries a bad thing? Clearly they help hybrids achieve a higher mileage than their petrol-powered counterparts despite their weight. However, as I’ve said earlier, mileage is only one variable of the carbon-footprint function. Consider what it takes to produce those batteries. To simplify an explanation, I’ll focus on the most popular hybrid, the Prius. Prius’s use nickel in its batteries. The main source of nickel is in Canada and extraction of the element from the mines is notoriously harmful to the environment causing acidic rain and air pollution. Once it is dug up, it is then shipped to Europe to be refined. From there, it is shipped to China to be further refined, and then installed in the vehicles in Japan where the cars are finally shipped to the US. All of that pollution from the factories and the transporting ships and trucks that the nickel causes with its global trip is staggering. Mind you, nickel itself is considered an environmental hazard and that creates yet another risk as the material travels around the world. Regular lead-based batteries aren’t safe either, in fact they’re considered more hazardous, but at least they aren’t shipped over oceans to go into your vehicle. And again, no one ever claimed them to be “green”.
Another factor that bothers me is the efficiency and the principle of it all. True, they are in general more fuel efficient than petrol vehicles, but not by enough in my opinion. Perhaps I just need to wait longer for automotive engineers to improve the systems even further as the technology has only been effectively used for little more than a decade. A quick look at the specs between a 2nd gen Prius and a 3rd gen Prius indicates how well we have improved over the last few years. However, other alternatives such as diesel are still just as or more fuel efficient than hybrids and it shows in markets such as Europe which sells more diesels than petrol automobiles annually. For an example, the Prius achieves mid-50s mpg rating but a diesel VW Polo can achieve over 70. This is not a case for diesel’s superiority but more as evidence that hybrid systems are not the only solution to obtaining high mileage figures. But what about the principles of it all?
This is what I feel many people miss. I fear too many people see hybrids as an answer and are too short-sighted or too afraid to fully attack the main issue; oil. Take for an example the Chevrolet Volt. When the model was first announced, it was to be a full electric vehicle and I was happy to see Chevrolet putting to use that talent pool they have hidden in Detroit on other cars other than the Corvette. Then they decided to just make it a hybrid and I remember audibly calling them “A bunch of [w]ussies” when I first read it. Mind you, GM has produced an electric vehicle before and despite safety concerns and their questionable repo methods, it could be seen as a success. What it and the original Volt are doing is creating a source of transportation that doesn’t require any form of petrol or diesel at all and that is what I believe more companies need to make a priority.
I understand that producing an electric or fuel-cell vehicle isn’t that simple and I also acknowledge that the batteries that I just complained about will be used once again questioning how environmentally friendly these machines really are. However, in the long run I believe they are the answer and that we should stop fooling ourselves and wasting our time with band-aids like hybrids. It will take time to transform into a society without gas, but if we continue to make vehicles like the Honda FCX Clarity or BMW Hydrogen 7 as replacements for traditional daily transportation then it is a stronger step in the right direction towards solving a problem. Come on automotive industry, get bolder! But what should an environmentally conscious person who’s looking for a car do? What should a true green-minded individual purchase if they shouldn’t buy a hybrid? Stay tuned for the concluding part 3.
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