Monday, February 13, 2006
I've never really been a big fan of hybrids. This is mostly because I'm a car guy and I won't sacrifice performance for fuel economy (or safety, for that matter). But besides that, I wasn't fan because they aren't even economical. You usually pay a premium for the hybrid that you won't make up for several years (unless your company gives you a discount).
Today in the Times I read an interesting article about the Corporate Average Fuel Economy. I had read about this a lot in Car and Driver but something obvious never clicked to me before: car companies have to meet a minimum fuel economy for every car sold. So for every Prius Toyota sells, they are able to sell a gaz guzzler to balance it out.
By buying a hybrid, you think you are helping the environment and spewing less emissions into the air (and you are) but on the flip side someone else is out there balancing you out to zero net gain (I don't know this for a fact, but in theory). It's an interesting point that makes buying a hybrid (and in my opinion sacrificing your joy in driving) even less worthwhile.
Update: I guess I wasn't entirely clear here. I'm not saying "why buy a hybrid since someone else will buy a hummer and balance you out?" What I am saying, is the regulations for car manufacturers are pretty stupid in that Toyota is allowed to make more high polluting cars because they are able to sell many hybrids to people who care. The correct regulations would be "every car you manufacture has to get 30mpg or more" in which case buying a hybrid that gets 50mpg is helping the world.
Evan also pointed out to me that Toyota is beating the CAFE standards for their passenger cars (which is great!) so this isn't an issue with the Prius, but with the new hybrid SUVs (since they have different CAFE standards and classes)
Here's the original article
Today in the Times I read an interesting article about the Corporate Average Fuel Economy. I had read about this a lot in Car and Driver but something obvious never clicked to me before: car companies have to meet a minimum fuel economy for every car sold. So for every Prius Toyota sells, they are able to sell a gaz guzzler to balance it out.
By buying a hybrid, you think you are helping the environment and spewing less emissions into the air (and you are) but on the flip side someone else is out there balancing you out to zero net gain (I don't know this for a fact, but in theory). It's an interesting point that makes buying a hybrid (and in my opinion sacrificing your joy in driving) even less worthwhile.
Update: I guess I wasn't entirely clear here. I'm not saying "why buy a hybrid since someone else will buy a hummer and balance you out?" What I am saying, is the regulations for car manufacturers are pretty stupid in that Toyota is allowed to make more high polluting cars because they are able to sell many hybrids to people who care. The correct regulations would be "every car you manufacture has to get 30mpg or more" in which case buying a hybrid that gets 50mpg is helping the world.
Evan also pointed out to me that Toyota is beating the CAFE standards for their passenger cars (which is great!) so this isn't an issue with the Prius, but with the new hybrid SUVs (since they have different CAFE standards and classes)
Here's the original article