Do hybrid cars cause pollution?

One point many people don't always consider when thinking about consumer products is how much energy is expended to actually make them and move them around. For instance, when supporters of green driving recommend buying food locally they're stressing the fact that many foods are shipped long distances to get to various neighborhood supermarkets. It requires burning lots of gasoline or diesel fuel to transport that food such a long distance, which only increases the suppliers' carbon footprint. If more people bought food locally, however, that food would have shorter distances to travel, and those that deliver the goods would burn less fuel in the process.

Of course, it takes a lot of energy and resources to make a car -- and that doesn't exclude fuel-efficient vehicles like hybrid cars either. If you've ever seen pictures or video footage of an auto manufacturing plant, you'll see not only plenty of trained workers surveying the progress but also a complex labyrinth of machines. All of the parts that make up the car have to be built and forged, and it takes a significant amount of electricity and other sources of power to do this.

So, is hybrid car production pollution really a big deal? This topic actually caught the attention of the media and the public in 2007, when CNW Marketing Research, Inc. issued a report called "Dust to Dust: The Energy Cost of New Vehicles from Concept to Disposal." The paper claimed to calculate a dollar value for all of the energy necessary to create, build operate and dispose of a vehicle, and it made the surprising claim that the Toyota Prius costs more over the course of its lifetime than a Hummer H3. This, of course, confused and dismayed Prius drivers, since Toyota emphasized fuel efficiency and eco-friendly driving while marketing the hybrid to them.

After blogs and online newspapers began citing the paper and spreading its information around, several publications quickly criticized the findings from CNW for poor analysis and lack of peer review. While "Dust to Dust" claimed that most of the energy used by a vehicle came from its design and production, several other studies have found that 80 to 90 percent of a vehicle's energy is used during operation -- in other words, when you're driving it [source: Gleick].

At the very most, it takes 13 percent of the vehicle's lifetime energy to actually produce the car, whether it's a hybrid or a Hummer, and most carmakers are finding ways to reduce their environmental impact during the design and production phase by replacing hazardous substances like lead and hexavalent chromium with more sustainable materials.

The simple answer to the question of whether or not hybrid cars cause pollution is: Yes, of course they do. The majority of hybrid cars in production and on the road are gas-electric hybrids, and they burn the same kind of fuel used in conventional, gas-powered cars. Hybrid car emissions pollution is a real thing, but what makes these fuel-efficient vehicles attractive to people interested in eco-friendly driving is how much less pollution they cause in comparison to conventional cars.

What sets hybrid cars apart from other cars on the road is how (and how often) the gas engine actually powers the vehicle. Although there are several different ways to divide power between the gas engine and the electric motor, the gas engine in a hybrid car will usually kick in at higher speeds. For example, gas engines generally provide more horsepower than electric motors, so they're necessary for trips along the highway where speeds reach 45 miles per hour (72.4 kilometers per hour) or faster. Of course, that speed varies from vehicle to vehicle and is even dependent on how aggressive the driver accelerates.

To increase fuel efficiency and promote green driving, however, the electric motor in a hybrid car operates at lower vehicle speeds. This is one of the reasons why many advocates of hybrid cars feel that the vehicles are ideal for city driving, where people don't have to drive long distances and speed limits are typically much lower. The electric motor can also provide additional power during acceleration or when a hybrid is climbing a steep incline. Most hybrid cars also don't have to plug into a power source, since the gasoline engine works to charge the battery.

These elements work together to significantly reduce the amount of pollutants hybrid cars release into the environment. When using the gasoline engine, yes, a hybrid will create emissions like any other vehicle; however, the assistance of electric power significantly reduces the amount of pollutants a car produces over its lifetime.

Eco-conscious drivers are buying hybrid cars and other fuel-efficient vehicles for their lower emissions. The combination of a smaller gasoline engine for power, an electric motor for fuel economy and the promise of so-called green driving have proven to be successful incentives for consumers looking to save money on fuel and do their part to help out the environment. But increased awareness about the environmental impact vehicles and vehicle parts have on the Earth has led drivers to shift their concern from fuel efficiency to something else entirely -- hybrid car batteries.

The batteries in hybrid cars are responsible for the better fuel economy that's become central to the technology. They power the electric motor, which typically propels a hybrid car at lower speeds. This puts less pressure on the gasoline engine and stretches out the amount of fuel a vehicle burns in between trips to the gas station.

But the chemical material that makes up all car batteries, whether it's a conventional car or a hybrid, is typically toxic. Currently, there are far fewer hybrid cars on the road than conventional cars; however, concerns have been raised that if the number of hybrid cars increase, landfills will soon overflow with toxic batteries that are full of corrosive and carcinogenic materials.

There are three major types of batteries that companies use or are considering for use in hybrid cars: lead-acid, nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) and lithium-ion (Li-ion). By far, lead-acid is considered the most toxic of the three, and on top of that it's also extremely heavy, reducing some of the fuel efficiency gains from the electric motor. Lead-acid is becoming less of a contender in the hybrid car battery market and is being replaced by nickel-metal hydride. Nickel is less toxic than lead, but it's not without its own problems -- it's potentially carcinogenic and the mining process is considered hazardous. Since they're the least toxic, many consider lithium-ion batteries to be the next step for hybrid car batteries. In fact, car companies are investing millions of dollars in research for a working hybrid car battery that uses the same kind of power currently found in laptops and MP3 players.

For lots more information about hybrid cars and eco-friendly driving, follow the links on the next page.