Hybrid Cars, Do you think they're good? Options

[*steve330*]

I personally think they suck. The production of them puts out more emissions than would have been reduced due to the fact that it's a hybrid. In making the battery, they have to mine the nickel in Canada, ship to england for refining, ship to China for further refining, ship to Japan to be made into the battery, ship to America to be put into the production queue and does w/e from there on out. The quarry where they mine in Canada has had such horrible pollution that all around it, the acid rain's destroyed all vegetation.

Also I did the math and you would have to drive 212,500 miles on a civic hybrid to make it more cost beneficial than a regular civic. This was under the assumption that gas was 3.00 per gallon (which it is in Houston)

[falsetigerlimbs]

My mum has a hybrid RX400, and it's really cool. :)
Hybrids do take a long time to "pay for themselves," but I think it's more of a psychological thing; you think you're saving a lot of money because you're not buying as much gas.
I haven't really researched what the production of the batteries does to the environment, but even if the production of the battery is detrimental, surely once the car is in use, the everyday reduction in the amount of emissions would somewhat make up for it? Does anyone want to do the math?

[*Steven*]

My mum has a hybrid RX400, and it's really cool. :)
Hybrids do take a long time to "pay for themselves," but I think it's more of a psychological thing; you think you're saving a lot of money because you're not buying as much gas.
I haven't really researched what the production of the batteries does to the environment, but even if the production of the battery is detrimental, surely once the car is in use, the everyday reduction in the amount of emissions would somewhat make up for it? Does anyone want to do the math?

I can't think of any way to do the math other than read cited sources etc. They have, however, stated that the hybrid's "carbon footprint (lol)" is considerably larger than that of normal cars, despite the fact that normal cars put out more pollution once they've been made.