Find Reviews by Make:
Not selling power, mind you. In fact demand is so high for the new Prius that Toyota would like to increase production past its 500k/year projections. Too bad its battery supplier, Panasonic, can’t keep up. “Battery bottleneck,” howls Automotive News [sub], before admitting that Toyota has been building towards a million battery per year capacity. A year ago Toyota said they would reach that mark by 2011, now they are saying Summer 2010. Besides, what’s the hurry? “In terms of the Toyota lineup, I’d say [the Prius] is probably in the midlevel of profit,” reminds Toyota senior managing director Takahiko Ijichi. And all those batteries require more harmony between man, machine and nature. I mean nickel mines.
The strip mining has only just begun it seems… care to elaborate on what that photo depicts?
–chuck
Raping the earth for nickel = environmentally friendly?
Chuck: here’s a start. The mining industry has its own unique sense of environmental sensitivity. Nickel mining may be improving though. Not a mining expert.
Raping the earth for nickel = environmentally friendly?
All nickel mined > Nickel used in NiMH batteries
Greenies never want to acknowledge the collateral damage of their new, “earth-friendly” technologies.
Not saying we shouldn’t pursue other forms of propulsion, but the “greenwashing” of the truth (particularly in the latest Prius commercials) is just ridiculous.
As usual, there is no free lunch.
All part of what I call the Left’s Environmental Imperialism.
That is – rape the land, plunder the oceans for oil and do it all in the third world where they haven’t the technology nor desire to do it in the way least harmful to the surrounding environment or indigenous population.
Just so it’s not done in sight!
It’s all marketing! Right, Mr. Gore?
You know, I could probably make a drinking game to go along with Prius/global warming threads. A shot for each time Al Gore is mentioned randomly, for one.
superbadd75 :
Raping the earth for nickel = environmentally friendly?
Mining for natural resources is not rape.
If I recall my geography books correctly, the Earth is mostly iron with some nickel interspersed.
And the Earth won’t be here forever; one day it will be abandoned as our moon eventually breaks orbit, leaving the earth without the ability to support varying tides and regulate the weather. This will make life very hard, then eventually, impossible.
And some other day, long after that, a cold, dark, lifeless Earth will be consumed by our ever-expanding sun. Can you say “pop tarts?”
I say mine while we can! And Pop Tarts for everybody!
Funny how no automotive publication ever breaks a sweat about the waste of material resources involved in building and running a Ferrari. Nope, the anger and outrage is saved for hybrids.
How long until the moon leaves us?
John Horner :
Nope, the anger and outrage is saved for hybrids.
‘Anger and outrage’ require too much effort. I think it’s closer to ‘derision and contempt’ with a little slapstick humor mixed in.
It may never do so. But it IS receding at about a centimeter or two a year.
Oh, and: Al Gore, Al Gore, Al Gore, Al Gore, Al Gore, Al Gore, Al Gore, Al Gore, Al Gore, Al Gore, Al Gore, Al Gore… have a good drunk on me. That should be enough shots to send you all to La la land.
@John Horner,
Well, Ferrari aren’t marketed as eco-friendly. I suppose one could make the argument that Ferrari are produced in such low quantity as to have insignificant impact on the world’s resources.
Prius and its brethren hybrids are intended as volume cars. That makes the charade of their eco-friendliness all the more violative.
I’ll add here that, as Ferrari work to produce their ultra-strong, ultra-lightweight chassis for less, the technology may trickle down to volume cars. And occupant-safe cars that are light weight take less energy to move. Be that energy in the form of electrons or combustibles and their by-products.
Samuel L. Bronkowitz :
Greenies never want to acknowledge the collateral damage of their new, “earth-friendly” technologies.
Oh, yes, greenies are such hypocrites, who stick their heads in the sand and who REFUSE to see anything but what they want to see.
And brownies are so full of dung and feces and excrement and ordure that they…
This sort of talk is ridiculous. Sure, there are some environmentalists who are hypocrites, but there are alot of H. sapiens from every country, and race and interest group who are hypocrites. This is typical H. sapiens behavior. but there are others who are intellectually honest and try to see all sides of what they are advocating. When I was first working on green energy technologies in the late ’70s, we ran articles in People & Energy on the environmental impact of photovoltaics.
Why don’t you stick to arguing about issues rather than targeting a group who you think you disagree with. In fact, if you have good arguments, please express them as clearly and concisely as possible. That is far more productive.
@ZoomZoom, your scenario is slightly wrong. The Sun can not consume the Earth without the Earth getting closer to it. The closer a planet is to the Sun, the hotter it gets.
Forget the damage created by the building of Prius. How about the disposal of those damn things? Those batteries will kill the environment.
Give me an oil burner and I am happy.
How dare you speak ill of the Prius!!
Don’t you have other environmentally unsound things to rant about, like Cash 4 Cars?
You’re all mad.
The Earth is only 6000 years old. There’s nothing we can do to damage it. It’s making all the oil we need right now in places we just haven’t looked yet (or aren’t allowed to look!). Damn beatniks.
@ vento97
You’re absolutely right. I’ve been an advocate for years now that we each should try to exercise a bit more, remove fatty foods from our diets, drink less alcohol and reduce our personal daily intake of stainless steel.
My favorite hypocrite is the fat sanctimonious uber-eco-friendly math challenged Prius driver. And in the town where I live, I can’t throw an organically-grown fair trade coffee bean without hitting at least one.
PeterMoran,
thank you. Your new earther post was just the tonic needed after reading the angry posts here this morning
I wonder if Wall Street is playing in the spot market yet on minerals involved in battery production? GM started development of the Volt at an estimated cost of $8K per battery. After Wall Street finished their speculation, GM ended up at $20K per battery?
Hurrrr. Prius bad. Ignore environmental problems in diesel. Hippies bad. Hurrrrr.
M1EK,
Dude! It’s Ok! Nothing’s perfect! Here, take a hit of this and forget about it!
Samuel L. Bronkowitz,
Greenies never want to acknowledge the collateral damage of their new, “earth-friendly” technologies.
The real Greenies I know (including a particular subset of my extended family) ride bicycles almost exclusively. Even if they wanted to, they couldn’t afford a Prius. They agonize over the jobs they take, and make sure that their daily work only supports causes they believe in. They live in voluntary poverty, and they like it that way. They’ve become much more practical over the years, but they’re still committed to their ideals. Their lifestyle clearly isn’t for everyone, and they know it — but they do sleep well at night.
The people who own Prii (including myself, my brother, my sister-in-law, an aunt/uncle/cousin, and one of my wife’s best friends) are all normal people with regular jobs. The green-ish perception of the Prius doesn’t hurt anything for any of us, but the real reason we own them it is because they’re good transportation appliances that compliment our normal American lifestyles. Our Prius has over 100k miles on it, and has the lowest total cost of ownership of any car I’ve ever owned. It also has very versatile interior space — this little hatchback is better at hauling stuff than a mid-sized sedan.
I would recommend a Prius for anyone who wants a small/medium sized household transportation appliance. It’s well engineered for that purpose. People who want more than an appliance probably would prefer a sports car, a luxury car, or whatever. Those trying to “go green” should get over to the bicycle shop. And those of us who are cheap bastards who want an efficient practical little car for our suburban-American lifestyle can keep driving the Prius. :-)
I know it’s more fun to be hatin’ on hippies, but the truth about this car is that it fills the niche for a reasonably priced practical little hatchback that is desirable enough that you don’t have to explain yourself for driving it. The fact that Toyota is selling them as fast as they can build them is about a lot more than just greenwashing.
What??? The Pious is environmentally unfriendly???
Say it ain’t so!!!
When Toyota comes out with its “Nothing-Air-Nothing” battery tech, all the detractors will be satisfied.
Or not.
So is oil exploration and mining a lot prettier than nickel mining? I live in an oil rich part of the world and it doesn’t seem so nice here.
One should consider the amount of fuel saved vs. the amount of nickel used to evaluate the comparative mining damage.
Regarding the toxic waste from Prius batteries argument – aren’t these batteries easily recycled?
One more thing – the sun can consume the Earth without the Earth getting closer – the sun will expand.
Nickel mining is pretty nasty, and the point here is that the Prius isn’t as “green” as its advertising suggests. There is a trade off in production waste and environmental impact that is being ignored. Those of us who value truth (ie people who read The TRUTH About Cars) cringe at the hucksters who would have you believe that if we all bought hybrids we would save the environment. I value the technology because it is getting people to buy in to the R&D of new transportation solutions, but it is naive to think hybrid engines alone are our savior.
I’m so glad you used the word TRUTH in uppercase. I think it neatly highlights how rigidly in tune you’re likely to be with the propaganda you’ve read somewhere, anywhere….. Maybe you should just have said you believe the Hummer is more environmentally friendly, then we would know what “truths” you’ve been reading.
Look up the concept of Lifecycle Costs.
BTW, have you noticed how “nasty” retrieving crude oil can be?