Things to think about

A hybrid you could actually catch me in:
the Honda CRZ

So my dad has already sold his Prius in favor of a nice red Honda CRZ hybrid (6-speed manual...it's a fun little car actually), but I still wanted to show him my research and see what he said about it. He listened quite politely and seemed quite impressed. But then he sorta chuckled and threw a major curveball in my case: he reminded me that he bought a used Prius.

Well shucks...there goes my whole financial argument...

This is one of the few cases where buying a hybrid actually makes great sense. As more and more people buy new cars and flip the old ones onto Ebay or Craigslist, prices drop and buying a used hybrid becomes about as cheap as a regular gas-only vehicle. And because hybrids have continually shown that they can outlive expectations, a hybrid with over 100,000 miles on it isn't a scary thing to consider buying. If you're worried about it, feel free to get the battery tested by a dealership or independent battery professional, but chances are that you'll get just as much use out of it as the last owner did and not see any problems.

Hybrids that I would totally drive

It might be worth mentioning that not all hybrids rely on batteries, and not all are built to attract the wallets of the average consumer. Porsche Motorsport uses a mechanical flywheel-based hybrid system in one of its 911 race cars. It also has seen significant performance improvements as a result of its use. Not only does it improve cornering capabilities by powering the front wheels independently of the rear axle, it also showed a 25% fuel economy boost in its first run at the iconic Nurburgring. Shaun Bailey of Road and Track got the chance to drive the car in Portugal and it's safe to say that, like most of those who have followed the success of the car, he definitely approves of this particular hybrid.

Porsche's 911 GT3R hybrid uses a spinning flywheel to
store and release energy to drive the front wheels

Porsche should be also officially rolling out it's 918 hybrid this year. It's what mere mortals call a true supercar. Coupled with a 580hp v8, the two lithium-ion-powered electric motors boost total output to a whopping 795 horsepower. Flying from 0-60 in under 3 seconds and capable of doing 93 mph in pure electric mode, the car is the pinnacle of hybrid technology. It even managed to throw down a 7 minute and 14 second time on the Nurburgring.

But wait, you say, there are lots of supercars that have stats like that. And you're right! But those supercars don't claim an estimated 78.4 miles per gallon....

It's really quite impressive what Porsche's engineers have managed to accomplish with this car. Chris Harris of Edmunds.com did a really good review of it after an early test ride in the car, if you're interested.

As with the decades-ahead-of-its-time 1980s 959, the 918 will be the victim of countless skeptics who were quite happy without all the new technology. Also like the 959 however, Porsche is not content to leave well enough alone and is going all-out to develop some seriously powerful hybrid technology that will almost certainly trickle down from supercars to sports cars and soccer mom minivans in the not too distant future.

Let's hope so...I would love to pick up my kids from a track meet in 20 years in my hybrid SUV and go down to the drag strip to show up some clown in a twin turbo Supra. Those guys talk too much smack anyway.

Anyway that's about all I have to say about hybrids for the moment. Thanks for sticking with me through my rambling, and feel free to ask questions or leave a comment if you're mad at me for leaving something out. I promise not to throw a wrench at you if you disagree with something!

So I have this old battery...

Oddly enough, I feel a little obligated to defend one aspect of hybrids that unfairly get a bad rap. A lot of uninformed people have informed the rest of us and it leads to certain misconceptions that throw unnecessary dirt on an otherwise advanced technology: batteries.

When your buddy tells you he doesn't want a hybrid because the battery pack will wear out and he'll have to throw it out and spend a fortune on a new battery, laugh at him smile smugly to yourself because he's flat out wrong. Watch his face go red as his argument falls flat on its face when you can tell him about the wonderful people at Consumer Reports. These guys followed up early testing of a 2001 Prius with 2000 miles with tests on a 2002 Prius (same generation and battery pack) with over 200,000 miles. And guess what... the 200,000-mile car performed just as well as the 2000-mile car did. And that's even with technology that's now 12 years old! Take a look for yourself:

	2001 Prius	2002 Prius
Fuel Economy	2,000 miles	206,000 miles
Overall	40.6	40.4
Highway	48.6	46.3
City	30.5	32.1
Trip	48.5	46.3
Acceleration	2,000 miles	206,000 miles
0-30 mph (sec.)	4.3	4.4
0-60 mph	12.7	13.1
1/4 mile	19.3	19.4
1/4 mile mph	74.6	73.6
45-65 mph passing	7.0	7.3

But, for argument's sake, let's assume you did manage to kill your battery. Are you going to go to a Toyota dealership and pay $2500 for a new battery pack? Hell no. You're mechanically savvy, you're gonna go to a junk yard and pull the practically brand-new battery out of grandma's totalled Prius for about $500. And assuming you've held onto the same Prius all these years, you've almost certainly made up for that ridiculous price the dealer got you to pay so don't worry about a little maintenance expense here and there. It's to be expected, and you'd probably make up that cost in fuel savings within the year.

What to do with old batteries is definitely a concern though, one that should not be overlooked. Fortunately, old batteries aren't predestined for landfills: quite the opposite is true. Ever a leader in the hybrid industry, Toyota will pay $200 for old batteries in order to entice owners to return them to the company for recycling (although given the life of the batteries it's unlikely there's been a heavy flow of batteries back to the company). Honda also collects old batteries and sends them off to its own preferred recyclers.

Battery pack from a 2nd-gen Prius

Recycling hybrid batteries is a fantastic way to keep materials costs down. It also keeps them out of landfills, although lithium-ion batteries and nickel-metal hydride batteries are safe for such disposal. On top of being 70-100% recyclable, hybrid batteries are often called "zero landfill" batteries due to the consumption of non-recyclable parts in the recycling process. Like the nasty bits of lithium-ion batteries that get burned as fuel in the furnaces that melt and process the various metals.

'Murica

Here in America, we like to do things differently. Chevrolet doesn't have any fancy buyback programs for its old batteries. But that doesn't mean they don't have plans for those old things! Hybrid cars use sophisticated computer monitoring systems to make sure that they maximize the life of their batteries. As such, they still have plenty of life left when they get below their optimum automobile use levels- Often as much as 70%, according to GM's senior manager of battery lifecycle management, Pablo Valencia. But what to do with all these still quite healthy batteries? Apparently GM thinks they might have an answer.

Chevy's home backup system housing
repurposed Volt batteries

What Chevrolet has done, is take used battery packs out of their Volt Hybrid car, and connect them to houses to serve as whole-house battery backup systems. What a novel concept!! A prototype pack rolled out in San Francisco last year had the capacity to power up to 5 homes for a full 2 hours. 

This seems like a pretty minuscule amount at first, but when you think about it, there are very few times where that kind of demand would exist. More likely would be when power usage is at its peak in the hot summer months and homes would just need the extra juice to run the A/C in the afternoon. Then, at night when the world goes to sleep, the batteries can recharge for use the next day. AND, if we can get some good renewable energy sources going, we could even have wind power charging the batteries at night or solar power keeping them charged even while in use. Who knows?

Seems like a pretty cool idea to me. If people are gonna keep buying hybrids (which, if current trends are anything to go by, I expect they will), this is definitely a creative and useful way to handle old batteries. The prototype used 5 batteries...there's gonna be a lot more where that came from down the road (pun completely intended).

Ins and Outs of Hybrids

Strike one against hybrids is the styling. Without forcing my perfectly unbiased opinion on any of you, I feel like it's safe to say that the models that make it to production have traditionally been... ugly. Normally I would end my hybrid discussion right there (because really, who wants to be caught in a car that looks like a slug), but in the interest of full disclosure of information, I shall elaborate.

Le Cost of Le Hybrid

It all starts at the dealership: the increase in the upfront cost of buying a hybrid car as opposed to a regular gasoline-powered vehicle can be significant. As in $5,000+ significant. Now this isn't true for every hybrid, but considering that the Toyota Prius accounts for 48% of all hybrid sales in the US in the last 10 years, it isn't unreasonable to assume that the average consumer will see this price difference or one that is similar.

Consider for a moment the Prius and Toyota Corolla. These cars appeal to a relatively similar consumer base, but the Corolla costs much less up front ($16,000) than the Prius ($22,000). That's a HUGE difference right off the bat. Scroll down for a second and look at the bottom of that table- that's the extra cost of owning a Pruis after 5 years... Remember that extra wad of cash you handed to that salesman? Congrats! You've now saved 800 bucks! Just kidding...you've actually only lost 5200.

Unfortunately, this is frequently the case. Scan the table again and of these cars, the only comparison that is actually in favor of the hybrid is the Prius-Camry matchup.

Model	Edmunds.com True Market Value® price plus ownership costs*	Additional cost to own hybrid
Ford Escape Hybrid	$50,521
Ford Escape XLT AWD	$47,092	$3,429
Honda Accord Hybrid	$49,972
Honda Accord EX V-6	$46,156	$3,816
Honda Civic Hybrid	$36,666
Honda Civic LX	$32,993	$3,672
Toyota Prius	$37,893
Toyota Corolla LE	$32,610	$5,283
Toyota Camry LE	$37,974

Table courtesy of Edmunds.com

Bummer.

But in all fairness, there are a few newer models not included in that particular study that do actually give little improvements after a while if you can stomach the initial price jump. See this if you have time to peruse a lot of numbers, or this if you'd rather see some pretty pictures and take somebody's word that they're right. And when all else fails, fueleconomy.gov can give you personal estimates of costs for whatever comparison you want.

 Green? Or Not?

So let's just assume that you didn't actually buy your hybrid for the financial savings because you already knew that it would take way too long to actually see a positive difference. I mean, by the time you could start bragging to your buddies at the bars that your hybrid is saving you money, they'll probably be flying around on nuclear-powered hoverboards. Instead, you bought your hybrid in order to cut back on the harmful gases you're pumping into the atmosphere (so you feel better about towing your 9-second '72 Camaro to the drag strip with your souped up hummer).

Hybrids do get better fuel economy than regular gasoline-powered cars. That's pretty much an accepted fact. Therefore it stands to reason that they must produce fewer harmful emissions, right? How much fewer? Well, not as much as they ideally could.

Think about it: the key advantage to hybrids is the fact that they can shut the gas engine completely off. This is great for city use when a lot of time is spent stopped at lights in constant stop-and-go traffic. The problem with this is that hybrids tend to spend a lot of time on the highways as well, and the engine runs that whole time. Assisted by the electric motor, yes, but still burning gas just like the rest of us (mwuahahaha).

Without going into all the math behind the studies, during the average life of a hybrid, it'll produce roughly 20% less greenhouse gases than your comparable gas-powered vehicle. (Sidenote- I'm 99% sure that hyperlink is behind a firewall on the University of Delaware network so if it doesn't work, it's not your fault. It's just a lengthy study done at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute about hybrids that would be interesting if you have time and can read it.  The emissions stuff is on page 16 but the whole report in general is decent).

This is a good thing! If every person in the US traded every car they own for a hybrid, there would be a 20% reduction in automobile pollution. Right? Well, kinda.

That just does not look good for my lungs

Yes, emissions from the actual use of the car would decrease, but that's not the only part of a hybrid's life that pollutes the environment. It's important to consider the production energies and costs involved in hybrids. All those advanced materials in hybrid cars come with a cost. Aluminum, cobalt, lithium, these metals all require significant processing before they are turned into something useful. In particular,  obtaining cobalt and lithium requires extensive mining operations using big and inefficient gasoline and diesel machines. The basic effect of this is an even further reduction of the positive environmental impact of hybrids. 

TL;DR What it comes down to is this: the two primary driving factors for buying a hybrid have some serious flaws. Very few hybrids will actually save the purchaser money in the short run (sorry, I know that's not what you wanted to hear). And in case you thought you were safe taking the financial hit for the sake of the environment, more bad news: pollution reduction over the complete life of a hybrid is actually kinda pitiful. To really be nice to mother nature, you're much better off just buying some training wheels and hopping back on your bike if you want to be green.

Going Green...at 50 mpg and 15 mph

Is it just me or does this thing totally scream
"My Crocs are my favorite shoes"

It seems like every time I go out for a drive, I get stuck behind some middle-aged guy in a beige Prius driving 5 under the speed limit. And every time I do, I think about how driving like my 80-year old grandmother can’t really be saving that much more gas. I mean…you’re already driving a hybrid, isn’t that good enough?

And then, last year, my dad committed the ultimate act of blasphemy…he bought a Prius.

Now, my dad is a pretty smart guy, so this drastic act got me thinking, “What does he know that I’ve been overlooking?” Basically, I just chalked it up to better gas mileage for his 60-mile daily commute to work and forgot about it.

Fast forward to 2 months ago where I was brainstorming potential research topics for the semester’s main paper. It dawned on me that this would be my chance to finally squash any residual embarrassment I suffered when thinking about that oval-shaped gray thing in my driveway at home. I resolved to finally put to rest all the feeble arguments against hybrid cars so that in 25 years when people can only buy gasoline on the black market, I can point to my dad and show the world that hybrids weren’t just for hipsters and tree-huggers. I now proudly present my findings:

HYBRIDS AREN’T WORTH IT. 

Why, you ask? Well, sit back, relax, and stop waxing your Ferrari for a minute, and I’ll let you in on a few secrets.