Intimidating Drivers

[houstonscott]

They didn't have to build a freeway through the Serengeti to get the rare earth minerals need to make Prius batteries to make a Hummer. No lions or elephants world heritage sites were and are being destroyed to make a hummer. Same can't be said for Prius.

HS

 

[powerpace]

I've done my research, thank you very much. Glad you like yours. I bet you are against exporting coal to China too..

No actually I think Shipping Coal to China would be great. Coal can be burned cleanly. But not in China. They don't care too much for the health of their people.

 

[hawkeye08]

They didn't have to build a freeway through the Serengeti to get the rare earth minerals need to make Prius batteries to make a Hummer. No lions or elephants world heritage sites were and are being destroyed to make a hummer. Same can't be said for Prius.

HS

What? You mean that they are not using all environment friendly, no emissions parts and manufacturing processes to make this modern marvel of marketing?? How can that be? I bet you are going to tell me next that these are made by a greedy profit generating company using non union labor whenever they can...

Just kidding, I agree that the environmental cost is higher for Prius...

 

[powerpace]

I've done my research, thank you very much. Glad you like yours. I bet you are against exporting coal to China too..

Worried about Hybrid Battery Environmental Impact | PriusChat

This is a quite old and totally debunked topic. We will probably be hearing about it for some time.

So here are the salient points one more time:

Sudburry Nickel Mine is more than 100 years old. It has been refining sulfurous nickel ore all that time.

For those un-aware of history, man landed on the moon in 1969. The moon buggy training occured previous or shortly thereafter. The Prius Design Project started in 1992. There is no way the Prius was even around when the ecological destruction was already done while the Moon Buggies were scooting around the damaged Sudbury landscape.

The source of the picture used in the article was found by PC'ers. It is available for purchase from a picture supply company, and is dated well before 1992.

INCO (the company that owns the mine) has done much since the 1970's to recover the damaged areas. In fact they have won awards for their efforts in recent decades, and actually have gotten trees to grow again in some of the areas.

Nickel is an industrial metal used in a myriad of everyday items. Stainless Steel is the main use. Next time you pick up your eating utensils, "The Mail on Sunday" would like you to think about Sudbury too. The next time you take a trip by turbine powered aircraft, think about Sudbury - turbine blade alloys are mostly nickel. The next time you do not need to replace the exhaust system in a car in 2 years - Sudbury. The list goes on and on (metal platings, cutlery, connectors, magnetic shielding...). This is probably why "The Mail on Sunday" retracted the article. Toyota's nickel purchase is less than 1 % of yearly production at Sudbury.

Unfortunately, every lazy politico wanna-be (like Rush Limbauh, George Will and college student muscle car enthusiasts - Chris Demoro) out there keeps regurgitating the faulty information from the misleading The Mail on Sunday article. Rather than fully researching the topic.


Toyota has a recycling plant for the batteries, and a $200 bounty for the scrap batteries. Does your local Household Goods store have such a program for the stainless steel eating utensils, cutlery and oven grates they sell? Does "This Old House" list a place to send those Stainless Steel kitchens they are fond of installing after they are used up?

Read more: Worried about Hybrid Battery Environmental Impact | PriusChat
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[houstonscott]

http://www.theecologist.org/News/ne...way_plan_could_destroy_major_carbon_sink.html

What You will find is this highway links the rare earth mineral mines on the west side of the park with the maritime ports to the east. Most of those minerals will be used in the hybrid battery market in Japan, yeah your Prius.

I guess what people are trying to say about Prius drivers is, drop the I'm so smart I bought a Prius, I am better then you smirk on your face, and put on the I'm embarrassed an got sold a tall tail face. Prius has major environmental issues, more than most cars, enough is already known that hybrid and electric is not the future.

HS

 

[powerpace]

What? You mean that they are not using all environment friendly, no emissions parts and manufacturing processes to make this modern marvel of marketing?? How can that be? I bet you are going to tell me next that these are made by a greedy profit generating company using non union labor whenever they can...

Just kidding, I agree that the environmental cost is higher for Prius...

Not everything is environmentally friendly but they use less petrochemical originating material than others. Fish oil and natural fibers are used to make the plastic instead of oil.


Lithium-Ion Battery
http://green.autoblog.com/2013/05/2...m-ion-battery-production-6x-for-introduction/

 

[troutsqueezer]

Dave1949 has it right. Prius, while not perfect, was an important stepping stone on the path to finding new ways to build motor vehicles. That is another reason I bought one, I wanted to port some of my money over to a company like Toyota which has the gumption to try something groundbreaking than to keep giving it to big oil.

I know many people who drive one. They're all nice folks.

 

[houstonscott]

What a sucker. You didn't do any of that....I guess as long as long some people believe that junk and the government subsidizes them and they can make a nice profit on you and government they will make them. You know the government has bought 25% of them propping up the market or they would have gone away long ago. Most people I know who bought toyota's were women who nothing about cars but they were good folks. Oh, what cars do the bad folks drive?


HS

 

[brain55]

My wife has a 2009 Camry Hybrid, it's been a great car. Obviously it doesn't quite get the mileage that the Prius does, but I wanted her to have a little bigger car than the Prius and she didn't like the giant dash in the Prius anyway. It gets nearly double the mileage her 2001 Chrysler 300M did. The 300M averaged 19 mpg the Camry gets 36 mpg with her driving it.

I believe in the hybrid technology and would buy another one.

Brian

 

[murphy1244]

My wife has a 2009 Camry Hybrid, it's been a great car. Obviously it doesn't quite get the mileage that the Prius does, but I wanted her to have a little bigger car than the Prius and she didn't like the giant dash in the Prius anyway. It gets nearly double the mileage her 2001 Chrysler 300M did. The 300M averaged 19 mpg the Camry gets 36 mpg with her driving it.

I believe in the hybrid technology and would buy another one.

Brian

Would like to get a Tesla sports car if and when the prices go down.