Hummer H3 is greener than the Prius

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This article presents some little known facts:

The feature that makes the Prius such a draw for the environmentally conscious is really its weak spot: the battery. Like all hybrid batteries, it's of the nickel metal hydride variety. The nickel for the Prius is mined in Sudbury, Ontario, and smelted at a plant nearby. Toyota buys 1,000 tons of nickel from the plant each year. So far, so green? Maybe not. The landscape around the plant at the city's edge alarms environmentalists. Some eco-activists blame the bleak, lifeless countryside near the facility in part on its 1,250-foot smokestack that belches acid-rain-causing sulphur dioxide.

'Sudbury remains a major environmental and health problem,' says David Martin of Greenpeace Canada. 'The environmental cost of producing that car battery is pretty high.'

But there's more. From the Sudbury plant, the smelted nickel is shipped to Europe, where it's refined in Wales. Next, it's sent to China, where it's manufactured in nickel foam. The nickel is then moved to Japan, where Prius batteries are made.

But the long, fossil-fuel-burning journey doesn't end there. After the batteries are placed in the Prius, some of the nickel is round-tripped back to North America while some is shipped to Europe in cars sold outside Japan.
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And, they have characterized this in a dollars-and-cents fashion, too
An H3 costs $2.07 per lifetime mile to operate in environmental terms, while the Prius costs $2.87.
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:lol: That's great, reminds me of the Top Gear episode where they showed the new Mercedes (S-class?) and they said the big engined car is effectively more eco-friendly then a Prius
 
Driving a Prius is like having a giant neon sign on the side of your car that says, "Look at me, I'm a pompous ass."

Seriously, when it comes to bragging about the car one drives, Prius drivers are among the worst. It's funny, because batteries are terrible for the environment.
 
The other day, as I was driving home from work (around 40 kms of highway), I was doing 120 kph and this idiot in a Prius was trying to keep up and wouldn't let me change lanes... I just looked at him, laughed, and accelerate to 130... comfortably changed lanes and watched him get smaller in the rear view mirror.
 
I was passed once by a Toyota Prius doing in excess of 100mph.

The irony was amusing.
 
3-Wheel Drive
Driving a Prius is like having a giant neon sign on the side of your car that says, "Look at me, I'm a pompous ass."
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And drivers of Hummers aren't?

But seriously, I suspected something along those lines from the beginning. Not necessarily more eco-friendly than the Hummer, but whatever.
 
Drivers of Hummers tend to be middle aged women who are more interested in talking on their cell phones, putting on their makeup, and beating their loud kids in the backseat then driving. At least that's how it is here. I think every GM exec buys his wife an H2 or H3.
 
It's true, Nickel is a horrendous product. If you go on google earth and look around Sudbury you'll find it closely resembles the moon!

source given
But there's more. From the Sudbury plant, the smelted nickel is shipped to Europe, where it's refined in Wales.
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My dad was in charge of shipping that nickel :D
 
I just noticed something:
Article
The hybrid king of mileage actually gets a city-highway average of about 46 mpg, down roughly 16% from earlier ratings.
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While that still seems rather high (and I'm pretty sure the percentage is outright wrong), it should at least shut Toyota up about the amazing benefits of gas mileage the Prius brings when it gets outdone by normal engined cars of the same size (calling the Prius a midsize car means that the Chevrolet Cobalt is a full size car).
 
For those who can't be bothered to check out google maps, here're two screenshots of Sudbury's factory.

1.jpg



2.jpg



Sure is purdy, ain't it?
 
Joey D
Price of the car and running costs divided by the average mileage put on a car in it's life time.
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A prius' MSRP is cheaper than that of the H3. And an H3 sucks up a lot more gas.

So is it because the prius is very expensive to maintain in the long run? Or does its engine/motor die faster? It seems ironic because expensive maintenance and unreliability are usually not problems japanese cars face.
 
I saw two Prius' driving down the same road in front of me the other day, and I nearly vomited upon myself while driving my car. Their overarching douchbaggery drives me absolutely insane, and at one point, I was joking that they were drafting partners, looking to gain the best MPG possible...

...Have I mentioned that I hate Prius drivers?

The list of things against the Prius has mounted over the years, and it has become laughable in some respects. Toyota still has figured out what they will do with the cars once the batteries die, and beyond that, they haven't fixed (as far as I know) some of the computer glitches that plague the car's systems.

In addition to that, real-world testing by the American EPA will pretty much destroy the perceived 'benefit' to the ownership of a hybrid in real-world conditions, and basically show that they are only a temporary band-aid to whats going on today. Hopefully, it should shut Toyota's "60 MPG!" claims up once and for all...

I just find it so ironic that the 'anti-christ' of automobiles is in theory, cleaner than the 'messiah' offered to us by Toyota. I love it when the simple facts work out in my favor...
 
Famine
I was passed once by a Toyota Prius doing in excess of 100mph.

The irony was amusing.
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Ironic but not surprising. Judging by the Prius drivers around where I live, they are the most aggressive and vindictive drivers on the road. And I mean even more aggressive then me, and I think I drive like a total jerk at times.

An old man in a Prius cut me off, turning in front of me at the last minute at an intersection. By instinct I honked at him. In response, he slowed down, as if to let me pass. When I did, he turned almost 90degrees to block the road. Then back, then turned again as I tried to just get away from this guy. Finally got in front of him, and he followed me for a good 10 minutes, expecting to do what I have no idea. That was the worst response; most just blaze by you, cutting up traffic on the highway as they go.


But I'm not surprised by any of this lack of greenability. I've been saying for years that BATTERIES ARE NOT ECO-FRIENDLY! It's all marketing fluff. It makes you feel better that you're not the one directly burning fuel; you're just using it second-hand since someone else made a huge mess making the car you think is so "clean".
 
YSSMAN
Hopefully, it should shut Toyota's "60 MPG!" claims up once and for all...
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The main problem with Toyota's claims is that they are as close to false advertising as you can legally get, especially because Toyota advertises the "OMG 60 MPG!!!!!111!!" figure in comparison to midsize cars; when the Prius is in fact smaller than or equal to compact cars sold in this country, which in turn usually get very similar mileage to the Prius while costing many thousands less.
 
I hate Prius drivers, but for the opposite reason. I have found that getting stuck behind Prius is just like getting stuck behind a Buick. Takes forever to reach the posted speed, barely goes over the posted speed. I've cussed on more than one occasion, getting stuck behind one when I was in a hurry.
The Article
'Sudbury remains a major environmental and health problem,' says David Martin of Greenpeace Canada. 'The environmental cost of producing that car battery is pretty high.'
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Greenpeace is so full of it. What was this battery factory doing before there were hybrid cars, growing christmas trees?, organic batteries? Prius batteries causes an perfectly environment friendly Sudbury plant to cause pollution all of the sudden. Maybe they are nuclear batteries!
 
Not to mention the cost of the freakin' Prius.

I don't know how it is in the States, but here you can get a fully-equipped, top-of-the-line Corolla (hatchback, 3-door) for about 16,000€. The Prius costs 26,000€... that's 10,000€ more and it isn't even as spacious as a Corolla.

I just realised my oxymoron there calling the Corolla spacious, but you get the point.
 
Joey D
Price of the car and running costs divided by the average mileage put on a car in it's life time.
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Considering the H3 is GM... it's not really fair because the life time of a GM would probably be like half of a Prius so dur it would beat a Prius. xD

As much as people say they hate Prius drivers I'd much rather have them around then an idiot with a raised/modded H3 because those idiots not only can't drive but they take up everything...
 
No, your dividing by the cars life in miles. The shorter the cars life the more the car has cost per mile over it's life. For example, lets say I drive a £15,000 car and it lasts 50,000 miles. Servicing, MoT'ing, taxing and fuel ect, over thoes 50,000 costs let's say another £15,000, that's 30,000 / 50,000 which would equal £0.60 per mile, if you take that to 100,000 miles, it becomes £0.30 per mile.
 
So, My '88 Nova, with it's Carbureted 1.6l engine, burned-out cat, and overdrive-less 3-speed auto has less of an enviromental impact than the pompous tree-hugger in the Prius who's taligating me? all thanks to the manufacture of the Hybrid's batteries?

I feel so special, now.
 
On the basis of that, no, because were only talking economy in terms of cost to the consumer here. In terms of enviromental damage alone, you can't work that out in £'s and pence.
 
DWA
Considering the H3 is GM... it's not really fair because the life time of a GM would probably be like half of a Prius so dur it would beat a Prius. xD

As much as people say they hate Prius drivers I'd much rather have them around then an idiot with a raised/modded H3 because those idiots not only can't drive but they take up everything...
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Que Passa?

You apparently don't know the old rule that a GM car will run badly longer than most cars will run at all...

...And I'd rather have the H3 around than the Prius. At least the HUMMER is interesting to look at, no matter how much bigger it is than my Jetta...
 
a6m5
Greenpeace is so full of it. What was this battery factory doing before there were hybrid cars, growing christmas trees?, organic batteries? Prius batteries causes an perfectly environment friendly Sudbury plant to cause pollution all of the sudden. Maybe they are nuclear batteries!
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So? The nickel was going to be used in things that actually need batteries so that people can do their jobs. Like cordless drills, laptops, etc.

Not so little miss pompus ass Hollywood can feel better about not contributing a damn thing to society.
 
Just told my dad about this and he pointed out that they haven't been shipping the Nickel foam (the product that goes into the batteries, awesome stuff) from Clydach (Wales) for a few months now as the Japanese are finally excepting the stuff produced in China.

I don't know how much better that makes it though...
 
DWA
Considering the H3 is GM... it's not really fair because the life time of a GM would probably be like half of a Prius so dur it would beat a Prius. xD
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Now, I'm really doubting the lifespan of a Prius. As in, really seriously.

Think about it:
-You've got constant starts and shut-downs on the motor.
-Immediately after start-up (hot or cold), you've got acceleration. It is also likely to be fairly high-revving acceleration because you've exhausted the power of the electric motor (and are thus at some speed already), and because it's an incompetent crapbox of a motor that is not suited for hauling around a compact car, let alone a compact car with a thousand pounds of nickel in it.

I think we're going to be seeing alot of oil-burning Priuses a few years down the road.
 
skip0110
So? The nickel was going to be used in things that actually need batteries so that people can do their jobs. Like cordless drills, laptops, etc.

Not so little miss pompus ass Hollywood can feel better about not contributing a damn thing to society.
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What are you, the battery police? :p

I'm sorry skip, but I don't think you are getting what I'm saying. Cordless drill batteries or Prius batteries, Sudbury plants have been polluting the surrounding environment for decades. I mean the article is talking about how NASA tested the lunar rovers in the environmentally ruined area to simulate the lunar surface! I know those cars are older than the Toyota Hybrids!

The claim being made here is that if it wasn't for Prius, Sudbury plant wouldn't exist, or somehow would be eco-friendly, which is just not true.
 

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