Green vehicles: "the math doesn't really work out."
The ugly economics of green vehicles
Excerpt:
Some consumers may be willing to pay more for greener, more efficient vehicles. Most cannot; a $12,000 Nissan Versa is much more accessible than a $30,000 Nissan Leaf. To push people towards these new technologies, the state and federal government has been stepping in to sweeten the pot.
.. lower gas prices, higher fuel efficiency for conventional cars, and the high prices for alternative fuel vehicles are putting a triple whammy on green car sales. Right now, she says, for consumers, "the math doesn't really work out."Comment: Images from the Wiki articles linked above. I would consider a Prius but with only 75,000 m on my Buick, I am 5-6 years away from making a purchase.
Not only do they not make sense economically, but they also do not make sense ecologically. Put gently, they burn a lot of coal in Bolivia mining the lithium, so when you account for limited range and limited life of a hybrid or electric car, you're actually polluting more than with an ordinary vehicle of similar characteristics.
ReplyDeleteReally the only case where they make sense, IMO, is as a taxi or urban delivery vehicle, especially in an area where it doesn't get too hot or too cold, which does a number on batteries. In other words, a corridor from Seattle south to the Bay area is about it in this country.