If this IS true can I get PROOF.Is there any truth behind the Toyota Prius Inefficiency model?No, it's not true.
1. Some of the nickel for the NiHM batteries comes mainly from the Sudbury, Ontario, Canada mine. There are other nickel mines throughout the world. Toyota isn't saying how much comes from where.
2. The information used by the detractors comes from the 1960s when the mine, like most all mines, were pretty bad environmentally. During the 1980s the mine was cleaned up and it now wins environmental awards from Environment Canada and others. (AFAIK, there weren't many Prius made in the 1960s and 1970s, any you find should be worth a fortune).
3. Only about 1% of the mine's total output is used for NiMH batteries of all kinds. Much of the other 99% is used mainly for tableware and automotive chrome although there are many other uses for nickel, such as coins.
4. All car manufactures ship materials and cars over the world. Toyota is no worse than any other. Note that most of the Toyotas sold in North America are made in North America and with 80% of parts being supplied from North America. The Prius is an exception to this. The Camry hybrid is made in the Kentucky plant.
5. The Prius sold in Japan, Europe, and North America are made in Japan in the Tsutsumi Plant. There is a plant in China but Prius from there are only sold in China and I believe they are different than the ones sold elsewhere.
6. The Prius is made in a zero-landfill factory (so are many other Toyotas).
7. There is a plan to manufacture the Prius in the Mississippi plant that's currently being built. There is no date set when the production might start. (I believe they will start producing Corollas there until the "kinks" are worked out, though that may change).
8. Most of the plastics in the Prius are bio-plastic rather than petroleum based.
9. A good portion of the repair manual consists of instructions on how to recycle the various components. For example, the wiring harness can be removed with a single pull so the copper can be recycled.
10. Toyota, Honda, and VW are creating jobs in America while the so-called American companies are shipping jobs to China and Mexico as fast as they can. I think I'll stick with the car companies that create American jobs.Is there any truth behind the Toyota Prius Inefficiency model?It would be very difficult to come up with hard and fast numbers for lost savings since for one thing we have no idea what Prius owners would be driving if they weren't Prius owners.
Another thing to consider about overall pollution: all those storage batteries will wear out, and batteries are terrible polluters if not disposed of properly and when they are disposed of properly it takes quite a bit of energy to do so.
I also suspect that when these cars get older and the time comes to replace the batteries the replacement cost will be more than the overall worth of the car and people will get rid of them instead of keeping them on the road, incurring more pollution and energy losses in scrapping the old cars and buying new replacements.
Lastly, the Prius gets about the same mileage as a late 80s Honda CRX, which required no new technology and was a more entertaining car to drive.....such is "progress"Is there any truth behind the Toyota Prius Inefficiency model?Actually, the plant that manufactures the batteries for the Toyota Prius are located in a rural area of China. This area of the country has no pollution control laws, and as such, dumps toxic chemical waste into the local rivers on a daily basis. One google search and you can find the location of the toyota plants.
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