Hummer Consumes Less Energy Than a Prius?">Hummer Consumes Less Energy Than a Prius?
Interesting, but dubious study concludes that hybrids cost more in terms of overall energy consumed than comparable non-hybrid vehicles. But even more surprising, smaller hybrids’ energy costs are greater than many large, non-hybrid SUVs. For instance, according to the study the energy cost of the bunny-sized Honda Civic hybrid is $3.238 per mile vs $1.949 per mile for the Hummer.
I disagree with the conclusions drawn from the study. When comparing a Hummer to a hybrid, the author says that the Hummer has 2 big advantages – total miles the vehicle will last for (300k Hummer vs. 100k hybrid), and much lower manufacturing costs for the Hummer because it is less complex, more generic, and uses cheaper materials.
However, the author ignores the fact that hybrids will never close the gap in those 2 categories if manufacturers continue to shy away from producing them. If hybrids were the norm, you can bet their reliability and total mileage would increase, and that production costs would go down. While the Hummer may currently have a lower total energy cost (which I am not totally convinced of, having not read the actual study yet), hybrids have a lower POTENTIAL energy cost… a lower cost that will take time and effort on the part of both consumers and manufacturers to realize.