Ah, the Toyota Prius. Much beloved of ecozealots such as the Mayor of London - Ken Livingstone, marketing types, Hollywood celebrities and Lentilistas who want to be seen to care about the planet by reducing their ‘carbon footprint’

     

  An acolyte at the altar of  Prius….

The Prius is good, right?

It is very economical

Well, if you can duplicate the claims by the manufacturer, then they are. The problem is nobody seems to be able to duplicate these according to claims in a study by What Car? Magazine http://living.sky.com/Article.aspx?ArticleId=258 In this only 5 out of 85 cars tested matched frugality claims and the worst offender was the Prius which returned fuel consumption figures 20% worse than the claimed figures.

Interestingly, a recent comparison found the Prius less economical than the much larger BMW 520d in a back to back test. http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/driving/used_car_reviews/article3552994.ece

The hybrid drivetrain means it produces less CO2

Well actually, it may not be as clean as manufacturers and it‘s devotees would have you believe.In fact, in the UK the Advertising Standards Authority have recently found against Toyota in a complaint about their adverts, finding them guilty of misleading claims in an advert for the car. Toyota claimed reductions in CO2 output of up to one tonne per year over equivalent traditionally powered cars.

Unfortunately for adverts for distribution in the UK, the figures were based on the average mileage for a car in the USA (12.5K miles) as opposed to the UK (8.4K miles)

Unfortunately the comparison of the 1.5 litre Prius' emissions was made against a 2.0 litre, old model Toyota rather than an equivalent sized, latest spec engine.

Unfortunately when compared against a range of smaller engined (1.5 - 1.8) cars well over half of them emitted less than one tonne of CO2 per (American) year more than a Prius.In all, Toyota was found to have breached TV Advertising Code Rules on five counts;

All rather unfortunate I think you would agree. http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_42615.htm

It is a greener car

Ermm, is it? A study by CNW Research of vehicles sold in the US which measured dust-to-dust energy costs revealed the Prius to be one of the worst in terms of lifetime energy consumption when factors such as energy cost of manufacture is added to energy cost of running the car. In fact only large luxury cars and SUVs came below the Prius (and it’s hybrid colleagues from Honda) http://cnwmr.com/nss-folder/automotiveenergy/Cost%20per%20mile%20by%20segment%20by%20model%20and%20sorts.xls The batteries alone contribute hugely to the numbers. Toyota buys the nickel in Canada, refines it in Wales, ships it to China for making into nickel foam, then on to Japan for battery manufacture. How big a carbon trail does that leave?  There is also a massive pollution problem from the nickel smelting. http://cnwmr.com/nss-folder/automotiveenergy/Hidden%20Cost%20of%20Driving%20a%20Prius%20Commentary.pdf Then there is the problem of disposal. What on earth do you do with the batteries? Hmm, an idea for another wee article.

Anyway, if you really want to be ‘green’ then don’t keep buying new cars. Look after your old one, keep it maintained properly to minimise emissions and think of all the energy costs you are saving in terms of production and transporting to the point of sale as well as the costs of recycling your old one. 

Oh, I nearly forgot another reason not to buy a Prius. You look like a right twat driving around in one and your kids will disown you.

 DJ