Prius vs. Hummer

In an interesting article in this month’s Wired, the Toyota Prius is put to the test against none other than the Hummer. And this isn’t just any ol’ test. This is an environmental test. Guess who wins?

The Hummer. It might not be nearly as fuel efficient as the deathtrap of a car, but you know what? It’s cheaper to create one…Cheaper in the energy sense, that is. It takes 113 million BTUs of energy to create a Toyota Prius, due largely to the 30 lbs of nickel found in the battery. The Hummer is less. How much less? Well, this blogger doesn’t want to throw out an inaccurate number, but the point is that it does for sure cost less than a Prius. Nobody tries to pass a Hummer off as an energy efficient or green vehicle…So the fact that it costs less energy to create than a Prius, to me, is quite astonishing.

Let’s put those 113 million BTUs into perspective, eh? There are about 113,000 BTUs in one gallon of gas, which means that by the end of the creation of a Prius, it has consumed the equivalent of 1,000 gallons of gas. This means, by the time it hits the showroom or when you turn the engine over for the first time, it already has what Wired calls, a carbon debt. To pay this debt off, the Prius will have to drive 46,000 miles.

The solution to energy problems is not buying the plastic fantastic vehicle known as the Prius. Now I’m not saying a Prius is a bad car to own or anything like that, but it just might not be the solution to our energy problems. Wired says the solution, well one solution, is to buy a used car. A used car will usually have its debt paid off by the time you get to it, after the first or second owner has driven it for awhile.

Buying a used car is about as green as this blogger will ever get.