Solar Bell

Well, well, well.....

The Recorder

In part....


Building a Toyota Prius causes more environmental damage than a Hummer that is on the road for three times longer than a Prius. As already noted, the Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. This plant has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has used the ‘dead zone’ around the plant to test moon rovers. The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles.
The plant is the source of all the nickel found in a Prius’ battery and Toyota purchases 1,000 tons annually. Dubbed the Superstack, the plague-factory has spread sulfur dioxide across northern Ontario, becoming every environmentalist’s nightmare. “The acid rain around Sudbury was so bad it destroyed all the plants and the soil slid down off the hillside,” said Canadian Greenpeace energy-coordinator David Martin during an interview with Mail, a British-based newspaper.


and....

The Prius costs an average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles - the expected lifespan of the Hybrid.

The Hummer, on the other hand, costs a more fiscal $1.95 per mile to put on the road over an expected lifetime of 300,000 miles. That means the Hummer will last three times longer than a Prius and use less combined energy doing it.

Wowie! Imagine that!!!!!!

-cw-

Rgale

Why does the author expect to get only 100,000 miles from a Toyota?
Most toyotas last a great deal longer than that. This sounds like somebody has an ax to grind, and is willing to stretch the truth - more than a little bit- to do it.

Regarding the nickel smelting plant, pollution like that , if true, is the reason that environmental laws and regulations exist- and the government should enforce those laws.

40cal

That settles it, I gotta go buy a hummer now.

trumpetmike

Surely not

tpter1

Wait till my father in law here's THIS! (He works for GM!)

TrentAustin

A friend of mine has 256K on his 98 or 99 Prius. I have another coworker who has 140K on a 2005 Prius and has the original battery in it. It's fine.


100,000 miles the lifespan of a Toyota? You sure you didn't get this info from Chevy? !

bruceconn

and your point is?

hsa-arch

Please don't quote me but I seem to remember "Dr Z" the head guy at Daimler Chrysler making some similar statements about hybred cars. Something about having to have to drive a hybred 60,000 plus miles a year over the course of a typical 5 year loan in order to break even for the additional initial costs.. something like that. I also seem to remember something about a lawn mower putting out as much harmful pollutants as a car driving from LA to Chicago in an hour of mowing. I'm going by memory (always a bad idea!) but some of this makes sense I think. Until everybody hops on the band wagon these few hybreds aren't making much of an impact on the environment, the problems go far deeper then that... sorry for the long winded thoughts.

gzent

Come on Chuck, we all know that being an environmentalist is all about being looking like you are saving the planet, not actually doing it!

gregc

When you say "HUMMER" you have to specify H1 (which is out of production for civilian sales since last June), the V-8 H2, or the 5 cylinder H3, which gets 20MPG on the highway.
BIG diff tween models~