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life cycle cost of hybrid cars

Created October 14, 2007, at 2:50 pm by rabeinert

A friend of mine asked me an interesting question when I told him about my hybrid. He was wondering how green the manufacturing process is. Is there any effort to use recycled materials in the cars? How far do materials travel to get to the factories? How far are the cars typically shipped to get to the dealerships? Do car manufacturers even take that sort of thing into account? My guess was no. Is there any push by consumers to make the manufacturing process greener for hybrids or just cars in general?

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pkellmey
Junior Member

4 years ago

The brand that seems to have pushed the hardest for green has been Saturn. They've had the green push since the beginning, however at first it was because of the cost savings to the consumer. Now, a lot of the brands are claiming to be green manufacturers, but there is little to show it is more than a marketing scheme.

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FL_Prius_Driver
Member

4 years ago

A lot of analysis has been done to show that over the life of a car, about 4 % or less of the energy consumed is used manufacturing the car. Unfortunately, it is a popular tactic to sway opinion by claiming that manufacturing is extremely energy consuming compared to gasoline consumption. It is not even close.

Do not lose sight of the big picture. Energy cost money for the car manufacturers. They have a strong profit motive to be very efficient and are continously making energy improvements in the plants. A lot of cars come out of a auto plant in one day.

It is also true that advertising "green" is a popular tactic lately. Yet nothing different is done in the trenches. It is irritating.

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rabeinert
Junior Member

4 years ago

I heard suburu opened a plant that's supposed to be green, although I haven't researched how it is green. I guess there a lot of ways for manufacturers to be green.

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