Transition to Hybrid Cars

Transitions don’t happen over night.  When you compare total energy costs of hummers to hybrid cars today, as Art Spinella from CNW Marketing Research did, you find that the hybrids cost twice as much per mile driven.  Hummer drivers rejoiced at this news, because they didn’t listen to the rest of the analysis.

From hybridcars.com:

If reporters had dug a little deeper, they would have clearly seen what the podcast interview exposed: the Hummer H3 looks a whole lot better than the hybrids because it uses “crude old technology that has long ago been paid for,” according to Spinella. On the other hand, the hybrids are new and complex, and the cost of the R&D energy required to make the necessary transformation of our cars from oversized, high-emissions gas guzzlers to something new and better has not yet been amortized over any significant period of time.

Podcaster Ben Kenney asked if the results from the study would be different if conducted again in 10 years. Spinella responded:

“It would be totally different in three years. The hybrids will look significantly better. The new hybrids they are developing now�the new ones that I’ve seen, Prius III and Prius IV�are so much more simplified. They’ll do what the current versions do, but with far less complexity, lighter motors, more recyclable parts, and longer lasting components. The current Prius, for all intents and purposes, will be the Model T.”

This phenomenon is something to keep in mind when considering the bickering that will accompany the transformation of energy sources from one type of power plant to another.