There are several studies out there that indicate the overall environmental impact of the Prius is actually much worse than that of the Hummer, due to the type of battery that the Prius uses. I'd say that's worth hatin' on, plus yuppies drive them so even better.
@boondoggle: Those studies are wrong, they used flawed methodology and therefor got the wrong conclusion. The traction battery is made out of nickel, in terms of actual environmental impact the starter battery, (lead acid) is much much worse than the traction battery. (Hummers have bigger starter batteries than Priuses.)
@ujfoyt: The battery is comparable to about 20 laptop batteries in terms of capacity, only of a different chemistry, (quite a bit heavier, but more charge/discharge cycles.) And yes, 20 laptop batteries would run you ~$2000 if you bought them retail, but the Prius battery is less than $500 in chemicals. However, the market is currently saturated with batteries from totaled cars because there is no reason to replace the battery before 200,000 miles in the first place, the only people that are buying the things are people that are converting to plug in hybrids, (and people who tried to convert to plug in hybrids but did it wrong and set the existing one on fire. Yes, if you short out a battery of that size, it will do weird things. Don't do that. Also, don't stick your hand in the engine while it is turning, and don't drink gasoline either. Moving on...)
@ujfoyt: The battery is comparable to about 20 laptop batteries in terms of capacity, only of a different chemistry, (quite a bit heavier, but more charge/discharge cycles.) And yes, 20 laptop batteries would run you ~$2000 if you bought them retail, but the Prius battery is less than $500 in chemicals. However, the market is currently saturated with batteries from totaled cars because there is no reason to replace the battery before 200,000 miles in the first place, the only people that are buying the things are people that are converting to plug in hybrids, (and people who tried to convert to plug in hybrids but did it wrong and set the existing one on fire. Yes, if you short out a battery of that size, it will do weird things. Don't do that. Also, don't stick your hand in the engine while it is turning, and don't drink gasoline either. Moving on...)
Is it too early for me to sing Age of Aquarius?
Too late...
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Mark
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