Quote:
Originally Posted by Soukus
If you're buying an electric car to help the environment do the math on the actual impact first. Are your really helping? Consider the impact on natural resources, the manufacturing impact of a new electric car to the environment, the impact of buying an economical used car, where the electricity comes from, etc.
|
The easiest way and most straight forward way to look at the impact on the environment is the total cost of ownership of the vehicle. Add up the price, the lifetime gas, manitenance, repairs, etc. The higher the dollars, the more environmental impact.
It take more energy and manufacturing to build a hybrid. You just don't see it at the gas pump, so you only look at that portion of the energy consumption.
Kind of like Ethanol as a fuel. It take more energy to make ethanol form corn, than you get in the fuel. Ethanol fuel, if it were not subsidized, would be quite expensive.