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Are Hybrid Vehicles Worth It?
With over 40,000 in use in Japan and thousands more on the roads of North America, Toyota's hybrid electric car--the Prius--would seem to be a success. It uses less fuel than Toyota's almost identically sized Corolla and emits less pollution. Environmentalists point to it (and to Honda's similar hybrid vehicle, the Insight) as leading the way to the "green" car of the future. This iconoclastic analysis by Lester B. Lave of Carnegie Mellon University and Heather L. MacLean of the University of Toronto compares the Prius with the Corolla and concludes that gasoline would have to cost more than $3.50 a gallon before the price premium paid for a hybrid vehicle could be justified. Yes, the authors acknowledge, the Prius does emit less pollution than the Corolla, but society would have to up its valuation of pollution abatement by a factor of more than 10 to offset the Prius' higher price tag. Part of the problem, if that's the right word, is that auto manufacturers are making remarkable progress on fuel economy and emissions control using conventional technology.
This article is sure to generate controversy since its conclusions fly in the face of much of today's accepted wisdom.
Contact: Michael J. Riezenman, 212 419 7558, [email protected].For copies of the complete article ("Are Hybrid Vehicles Worth It?" by Lester B. Lave and Heather L. MacLean, IEEE Spectrum, March 2001, pp. 47-50) or to arrange an interview, contact: Nancy T. Hantman, 212 419 7561, [email protected].
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