How can a "greener" emission car be considered green when it takes more emissions to make the car ?
than it will produce in its lifetime?
If you’re referring to hybrids such as the Prius, you are sadly mistaken. There was one report, done by a biased marketing company that made this claim. There are multiple problems with their report, including the concept that 85% of the vehicle cost is in the production and destruction of the vehicle, whereas all other reports (including peer-reviewed science articles) show a figure closer to 80% of the vehicle energy cost is in the operation of the vehicle.
In other words, driving a good hybrid (like the Prius, Honda Civic Hybrid and Insight) will save significant energy over the life of the vehicle. Some of the others, such as the short-lived Honda Accord Hybrid where it was more of a power-boost device than an energy-saving device, this is not the case, but those vehicles are clearly not selling as well.
If you’re talking about future hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, you’re correct, but they aren’t being sold now and likely won’t be in the foreseeable future.
There is no answer to this, of course, although car manufacturers and retailers would have us believe otherwise…..
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good question wish I could answer. Perhaps compared with non green cars overall lifetime emissions are still less.
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This is all part of the ‘green’ con. If car manufacturers did some proper development work on engine technology, we could have a vehicle that would travel 200 miles on a gallon of fuel.
The whole idea of so called ‘green’ cars, is to make the idle rich feel good about themselves.
Ever wondered how many environmentalists own shares in oil & gas companies? It’s a lot more than you’d think.
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maybe the manufacturers paint the car green so they consider it "green"
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If you’re referring to hybrids such as the Prius, you are sadly mistaken. There was one report, done by a biased marketing company that made this claim. There are multiple problems with their report, including the concept that 85% of the vehicle cost is in the production and destruction of the vehicle, whereas all other reports (including peer-reviewed science articles) show a figure closer to 80% of the vehicle energy cost is in the operation of the vehicle.
In other words, driving a good hybrid (like the Prius, Honda Civic Hybrid and Insight) will save significant energy over the life of the vehicle. Some of the others, such as the short-lived Honda Accord Hybrid where it was more of a power-boost device than an energy-saving device, this is not the case, but those vehicles are clearly not selling as well.
If you’re talking about future hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, you’re correct, but they aren’t being sold now and likely won’t be in the foreseeable future.
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Much Prius and hybrid research over the last 3 years. E-mail me if you want a full discussion on this.