Hybrids: Whats a Happening?

 

With the future comes a plethora of new problems. With those problems come a multitude of inventions to combat those problems. Ironically however, with those inventions come more problems. Brutal cycle isn’t it? Well, unfortunately we are going to have live with this cycle just as we live with the carbon or nitrogen ones. One example that falls in this cycle is that of the Hybrid car. As the 21st century rolled around, so did problems with fossil fuels. We began to see fuel prices sky rocket, carbon emissions climb and global warming take affect. We understood we were in turbulent times, so we moved to step two of the cycle. We invented something. That invention happened to be the eco-friendly hybrid car. Half electric, half gas, 100% trendy. As you may have predicted however, the new “answer to our prayers” came with its new set of problems, outrageous price tags, relatively low battery life and a shear lack of power we all seem to have a biological desire for. However years have passed since the first, ever exclusive hybrid and many U.S. consumers are anxiously wondering how far have we come? Is it worth it? Will we ever be able get our grimy little hands on one? And most importantly, would it be worth it? The truth can be found in the numbers. With the numbers Mr. Mck gave us, we are gonna have to look at it from a economic point of view.

Average distance drive every year: 12,000 miles

Cost of gas per gallon: $4.00

The Cost of the Toyota Prius: $21,500

Mileage of Prius: 45 mpg

Cost of Chevy Aveo:  $11,460

Mileage of Chevy: 34 mpg

Gas tank capacity for both: 12 gallons

So! Lets open up the act with the Prius.

Source: Toyota.com

 

So if you drive 12,000 miles per year at an average of 45 miles per gallon that comes to 266.666 gallons a year. Add that to the initial cost of prius of 21, 500 and plus the amount of gallons multiplied by the cost of fuel  (266.66 x 4.00= 1066.6667) and you get just around 22,566.667 buckeroos the first year of driving green ( 1066.6667 on gas)!

 

 

Act Two: The Avevo

In short, 12,000 miles divided by the 35 miles/ gallon comes out to 352.941$ gallons multiply that by the price of gas and you get 1,411.765 dollars spent on gas per year. Add that numeber to the intial cost and you get 12, 871.765, the first year of driving the Toyota. 

Conclusions

Now lets put these numbers to work! Driving the Prius you would save 345.098 dollars per year. However the initial price difference would be 10,040.00 dollars. Therefore, you would have to drive that hybrid for 29 years before it would pay itself off…. this is disheartening…. BUT FEAR NOT! Besides the economical aspect, which commercial full fuel obviously wins ( Also you can add in the 3,000 bucks you would have to spend on a new battery every 8-10 years you drive that hybrid, which puts salt on the wound.  There are other aspects as well. One of which is the environment.  According to The Green Car Club, “hybrids reduce health-threatening tailpipe emissions by 90% and evaporative emissions to almost zero.  (The Green Car Club) The hybrid vehicle does contribute to green house emissions just at a reduced rate because the fuel that powers the hybrid comes from a petroleum based fuel.” That’s good news! However, from my research, it looks the Hybrids can’t even win the environmental front.   According to the green car club still, regarding the production of the hybrids batteries, ‘The caustic substances that power the batteries are very poisonous and when released into the environment leech into the waterways and poison groundwater.” That is not good news.

Battery Leakage Source: http://cache.jalopnik.com/assets/resources/2008/06/Saturn-Hybrid-Battery-Leakage.jpg

From my research i doesn’t look very good for the hybrid on the roads of today. However, I feel that by just looking at the pure numbers and the environmental downfalls of the hybrid we are missing the point. The point of the Hybrid is that we now have a choice. We have a choice to stop giving all our bills to the oil companies and we are given opportunity to break away from our oil dependency. As i said in the beginning of this blog, problems come with the new inventions created in hopes of solving other problems. However, we can’t forget that this cycle comes full circle. Soon someone will invent some thing to solve the problems of the Hybrids. The only way we can further our quest for the perfect fuel source is by supporting the new alternatives so they get a chance to develop and take the true form that were meant be. Hybrid owners of the world unite!

 

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