The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© 2021 AFPHybrid cars' green credentials under scrutiny
By Taimaz SZIRNIKS PARIS©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© 2021 AFP
18 Comments
Login to comment
Peter Neil
A vehicle is only as green as the energy emissions to make it plus the energy emissions to operate it.
Electricity doesn't grow on trees.
GBR48
People buy hybrids because the roll-out of charging infrastructure has poor. A lot of homes don't have off-street parking and no guarantee of a regular on-street parking place. Workplace and car park charging needs to be ramped up. Having scared everyone over Covid, lots of people shifted from public transport to cars, negating much of the benefit from working at home. None of this is going particularly well.
Net zero is a fantasy, like Covid zero. Humanity will always impact on the environment. We are not going to spend the rest of our lives like bunnies in a hutch. As well as reducing emissions we need to start preparing for life with more extreme weather.
yokohamarides
The answer is none of the above.
Disincentive car use and incentivize public and active transportation.
When changing the transportation paradigm is vital, hybrid, electric, hydrogen cars only serve to reaffirm the present paradigm and to make necessary change more difficult.
kohakuebisu
Is that hybrid models in catalogs or the hybrids people buy and drive? A huge chunk of hybrids actually on the road sold are members of the Toyota Prius family and they use far more than 12% less fuel than a similar sized car. Priuses also get used worldwide as taxis, which may do 10 times the mileage of privately owned cars. It doesn't matter if there are rubbish hybrids on the market, like the Subaru XV, which is no better than the regular engine model. Very few people buy them.
I drive a Toyota Alphard hybrid people carrier (from 2003!) and it uses 40% less fuel than the 3.2L engine Nissan people carrier I had before. Electric cars may be the future, but there is no need to promote them by attacking other technologies. Honda now have a 1.6L turbo in their Step Wagon people carrier. It gets great fuel economy for its size, but in terms of category is just a regular gasoline engine car.
Desert Tortoise
That might work for city slickers but for those of us living in lightly populated rural areas far from a big city with cold winters battery electric cars are a non-starter. Engines that run on mixtures of hydrogen and ammonia, perhaps as the powerplant for a hybrid are a better answer for us rural dwellers. Winters here are cold enough for the battery warmers to use a quarter to half the charge on a battery. Then factor in reduced speeds on snow covered roads. That makes battery electric cars useless for us unless you want to sit at a charging station for half an hour two times minimum on a trip to the big city and back. Even with a gasoline car we have to refuel at least once and sometimes twice along the way.
yoshisan88
People always forget one thing. It is true that electric cars do not produce co2 like the petrol cars. However, where are the electricity from? If the electricity they use are generated from non-renewable energies then they are not as green as you think.
Jonathan Prin
Green washing.
Outside countries with massive output from nuclear energy such as France, the EV or hybrid is no cleaner than fuel vehicles to reduce climate change. It gets cleaner in cities as for air quality though and noise reduction is also a blessing.
I lived in Yokohama and 50% of cars were full EV. I could well sleep thanks to limited number of engines roaring around my neighbourhood.
ArtistAtLarge
Hybrids use less gasoline. How is this even questionable?
Chibakun
The UK government will ban sale of new hybrids from 2030 and I doubt they will back track. Toyota mostly cares about the US market though I bet, where it's going to take a long time to transition.
ShortMemories
China makes the batteries and China uses Coal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_in_China
fxgai
Kind of like “environmentalists”?
the_sicilian
ShortMemoriesNov. 7 05:09 pm JST
China makes the batteries and China uses Coal.
This is what is overlooked. The technology to make the batteries is extremely dirty.
https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/renewable/the-environmental-impact-of-lithium-batteries/
China is a huge polluter, and is building more coal burning plants so they can continue to churn out lithium for all the battery powered devices used today. And this makes the process even more dirty.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/dec/08/the-curse-of-white-oil-electric-vehicles-dirty-secret-lithium
Tom San
Even if 100% of vehicles sold were BEV starting today, it would still take an optimistic 20 to 25 years to replace the entire vehicle fleet with electric vehicles.
Desert Tortoise
While the US market is important, Toyota sells cars and trucks all over the world. You encounter Toyota Hilux and Land Cruisers working hard all around the world. I can't think of anyplace I've been where I didn't see Toyota cars and trucks everywhere.