Recently, gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles have become more popular, with sales steadily increasing every year. This increase in popularity has prompted me to wonder why people choose a hybrid over a similar non-hybrid vehicle. A few questions come to mind; Will a hybrid owner recoup the additional cost from fuel savings compared to a non-hybrid? Are they even worth buying to help save the limited global supplies of gasoline? What happens to them when they reach end of life? These questions prompted me to do a little research in the subject, and I have decided that hybrids are a little better than gasoline engines, but the benefits may not outweigh the disadvantages for many owners, at least not until the technology is refined and costs decline.
Will a hybrid owner recoup the additional cost from fuel savings compared to a non-hybrid? Hybrids typically achieve significantly higher EPA mile per gallon ratings compared to gasoline engines, but many owners may ignore the fact that the technology costs a few thousand more than a comparable non-hybrid vehicle. According to an article in USA Today, based on information from Edmunds.com, hybrids can take anywhere between “1.7 years for the Camry Hybrid…” and “Lexus LS600h hybrid, compared with the gasoline LS460L -- 102.6 years.” (Carty) of ownership before the owner outweighs the additional initial cost with the amount of money they saved by using less gasoline. However, “the average new-car buyer trades in the car at 55,000 miles, approximately every four years.” (“New or Used“) and will usually lose money to depreciated value as well as the money they spent on the additional initial cost, that they have not gained back with reduced fuel costs. This all depends on which vehicle they choose, the price of gasoline, and how many miles per year they drive, but on average, the hybrid owner does not recoup the additional costs before they sell the vehicle. Some economy compact cars provide better fuel economy per dollar spent than hybrids, but usually at the expense of interior space.
Are they worth buying as a way to help save the global fuel supply? Experts debate about just how much oil is left in the world, but usually agree that we are using up its finite amount very quickly. Some people buy hybrids as a way to help use less of this oil. But there are other technologies that provide a better solution to this problem. E85 Ethanol blended fuel capable vehicles actually use less gasoline per gallon of fuel because about 85% of the gallon is ethanol, and the other 15% is gasoline and other additives, compared to a typical gallon of gasoline which contains only about 10% ethanol and the remainder is gasoline and other additives. This makes E85 vehicles more fuel efficient per gallon of gasoline than most hybrids running on E10 gasoline.
As an example, a large, heavy, sport-utility-vehicle like the Chevrolet Avalanche equipped to run using E85 blended gasoline achieves approximately 15 miles per gallon of E85 blend on the highway. (EPA Green Vehicle Guide) Since the blend only contains 15% gasoline, the Avalanche effectively achieves 100 miles per gallon of gasoline compared to 45 miles per gallon or so for a Honda Civic hybrid on the highway. (EPA Green Vehicle Guide) Also, the E85 components only add a couple hundred dollars to the base price of the vehicle, and can even be retrofitted to existing gasoline engines. However, this may present a different problem; E85 is a relatively new technology and resource, usually made from plant based crops. Although these crops are renewable, the infrastructure and natural resource production may not be enough to meet the higher demand for the ethanol if E85 is used significantly more. If the intention is to reduce dependence on foreign oil sources, E85 is a better method than hybrid technology.
There are other technologies that are being developed alongside hybrid and E85 technology as an effort to find a solution to the pending crisis of global fuel supply. Technologies like range extended electric vehicles, natural gas engines, hydrogen fuel cells, clean Diesels, bio Diesels, Diesel-electric hybrids, homogenous charge compression ignition engines, multi-cylinder deactivation, multi-fuel capable engines, and other technologies are being researched and developed to find ways we can reduce emissions, as well as fossil fuel consumption. However, with these technologies being new, production and development costs to remain high, and will remain high until they become more mass produced and available. Also, like E85, the lack of a national infrastructure is hampering certain technologies from being more widespread such as hydrogen fuel cells, or bio-Diesel.
What happens to batteries when they reach end of life? Hybrids currently use a Nickel Metal Hydride battery (NiMH) to store the energy created by regenerative braking and the gasoline engine assist. According to batteryuniversity.com, “The main derivative [of NiMH batteries] is nickel, which is considered semi-toxic. Nickel-metal-hydride also contains electrolyte that, in large amounts, is hazardous.” (Buchmann) Facilities capable of mass disposal of these types of batteries are relatively rare around the nation, and it is currently not very cost or energy effective to recycle batteries for the valuable metals. “It takes six to ten times the amount of energy to reclaim metals from recycled batteries than it would through other means.” (Buchmann) It is expected that the demand for proper disposal will soon outweigh the capacity of disposal as the increased number of hybrids reach end of life. This could lead to many of the excess batteries to be disposed of improperly; introducing the toxic chemicals to the environment. There have been recent advances in battery technology, like batteries using Lithium Polymer, that improve the power to weight ratio, and recyclability of the components, as well as the types of metals and materials used. These technologies are expected to replace NiMH batteries in hybrid vehicles, as cost of production comes down. Until NiMH technology is replaced, we may have a problem with poorly disposed of nickel batteries.
What else happens when a hybrid vehicle reaches end of life? After a hybrid’s battery has reached its end of life, the cost to replace the battery is sometimes more than what someone is willing to invest compared to the cost to simply purchase a newer used vehicle. This causes most of these vehicles to be sold to junk yards and crushing companies to salvage materials and used parts for other vehicles. The battery, though, must be disposed of properly, and as I showed earlier, that can be more effort than a junk-yard might want to undertake, and the batteries can potentially pile up in the corner of the yard where the chemicals can leech into the soil, and eventually contaminate the water supply for the surrounding area. To compare, a gasoline engine vehicle usually is not subjected to a junk yard until “just over 13 years” (“New or Used”) on average, or almost twice as long as a hybrid is expected to stay on the road. This means that as hybrid vehicles are junked, new vehicles will be produced (usually not using recycled material) and eventually junk yards can be so full of relatively new, ten-year-old hybrids sitting across from thirty-plus-year-old gasoline engine vehicles that simply sit and rot in the hot sun, rather than using the materials for new hybrids or other vehicles. Current recycling efforts are not very cost-effective, and parting out a car can be much more profitable than recycling. However, If we can figure out a cost-effective way to recycle these vehicles, we may be able to reduce the number of vehicles (hybrid or not) rotting in a junk yard.
As far as being eco-friendly, hybrids may become better with improved battery technologies and combining other fuel technologies, such as with an engine that runs on multiple types of fuels, as well as introducing more recycled or sustainable material into the production of the vehicle. Until then, though, hybrids are not really any more eco-friendly than most gasoline engines. As far as helping to reduce impact to the global fuel supply crisis, they do help a little, but are not the sole solution to that problem. Hybrids are simply a step in the right direction, and if for nothing else, at least they serve the purpose of getting engineers and manufacturers to develop better technologies.
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