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Toyota Prius: King of Green or Earth Killer?

Harmony with Earth... or destroying it?

Anyone who’s considering a Toyota Prius might want to remember this quote from Jack Lifton, an independent commodities consultant and strategic metals expert, who calls the Prius “the biggest user of rare earths of any object in the world.”

That’s a mighty big claim, and if it’s true, it means the Prius, billed as one of the most eco-friendly cars in the world, is actually eating away our planet’s stores of rare metals.

The reason for the Prius’ hunger for rare commodities are its batteries and motor magnets.

According to Leftlane,

each Prius uses about 2.2 lbs. of neodymium and each battery uses 22-33 lbs. of lanthanum, figures that will inevitably double as Toyota seeks to boost the Prius’ fuel efficiency.

Neodymium, terbium, dysprosium, and lanthanum are all considered rare earth metals, and all are being depleted, quickly, by popular hybrids like the Prius, Honda Insight, and Ford Escape Hybrid.

Yes, hybrid vehicles decrease our use of fossil fuels and reduce tailpipe emissions. However, how “green” they actually are is an issue that needs some serious debate.

I’m thinking fuel-efficient four-cylinder gas or diesel engines are actually much healthier for Earth.

Are hybrid cars like the Prius ”green,” even though they deplete Earth’s rare metals? Do you even care?

-tgriffith

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Dreaming and Planning for Electro-Tech

It’s Monday, so let’s get serious. Despite tgriffith’s recent slam at old people (in his Buick post, to be answered in due course), we will put on our left-turn signals, leave them on as a sign of defiance, and look toward the future—which surely does not include Buick Enclaves, God forbid, the most egregious and ugly beast yet produced by GM. On a road trip last weekend, I passed one, towering above me and driven badly by some 30-something female, talking on a cell phone of course.

In the future, we are going to have far fewer Buicks and lots more electrics of all stripes on the road. With the Obama administration recently giving grants of $2 billion to foster and enable electric-car technology, perhaps it’s time to contemplate some of the issues involved in going electric. The open question is when and how the transformation will happen.

The President and four cabinet members went to the Midwest to announce these grants, and in fact it was a big-deal commitment to a technology, such as this country rarely makes. GM was the big winner, but other companies, mostly battery makers, won out, too.

General Motors Co. will receive about $241 million in grants, including $106 million for its planned battery pack assembly factory in Brownstown Township [Michigan]. Ford will get nearly $93 million, while Chrysler Group LLC will get $70 million for plug-in pickups and minivans. Four battery companies, most of them partnered with a Big Three automaker, received almost $862 million to build batteries in the U.S.

Michigan stands to gain “about 6,800 jobs immediately, and the new sector could employ as many as 40,000 by 2020, said Doug Parks, senior vice president with the Michigan Economic Development Corp.” But this is hardly a local story.

McKinsey, the eminent consulting firm, took a broad perspective in the June issue of its Quarterly, examining the outlook for electrics as it affects three industries: battery makers, automakers, and utilities. The report is fascinating reading, though some of you will challenge the assumptions.

No one can predict how may electric vehicles will be on the road at some future date, because there are simply too many variables.

But here’s a number to contemplate: electrified vehicles would enter the mainstream if about 10 percent of all cars on the roads were battery-electric or plug-in vehicles, running solely on electric power. That would mean sales of six million to eight million electrified vehicles a year by 2020, which would change whole sectors dramatically.

How we reach that tipping point is anybody’s guess: Some think that kind of penetration will take decades; others think governments can and should push this along. The interrelationship of the three industries and how it evolves are key. Some of many interesting twists and turns ahead will involve: the price of gasoline and the government’s influence on it; the ability and willingness of “incumbent automakers” to convert; whether batteries are outsourced, insourced, or produced after-market.

I think we’ll get to electrics—the 10-percent tipping point—sooner rather than later. What do you think?

—jgoods

General Motors Exits Bankruptcy

GM_headquarters_flags Well, that didn’t take long!

In fact, it took just six weeks to dismantle “the old GM” and build a new company; the biggest corporate bankruptcy in the history of the world is over!

That also means today marks the launch of a brand-new company, which is being called The New GM. According to their press release:

GM gets back to the business of building great cars and trucks, serving customer needs
New company created from GM’s strongest assets
Four core brands backed by the nation’s largest and strongest dealer network
Streamlined organization on a global basis for faster decisions, sharper focus on the customer
Commitment to open communications

In that same press release, CEO Fritz Henderson said,

Today marks a new beginning for General Motors, one that will allow every employee, including me, to get back to the business of designing, building and selling great cars and trucks and serving the needs of our customers. We are deeply appreciative for the support we have received during this historic transformation, and we will work hard to repay this trust by building a successful new General Motors.

We’ll see, won’t we? The company has a lot of work to do, but early signs are good, considering the recent news that Chevy’s Silverado and Camaro beat Ford’s F-150 and Mustang in June sales.

It’ll take a few model years of consistently quality products and innovative technology before I’d consider a GM product, but at least the company now appears to finally be on the right track.

Would you consider buying a vehicle from the new GM?

-tgriffith

New Cars: Better Deals Than Used?

accord A used car is always a better buy than a new car. Right?

Not so fast.

Weird things are happening in the automotive world right now, and they’re all stemming from the fact that our economy stinks right now.

Fewer people are buying cars, and when they do, many are choosing to buy used. But since people aren’t buying many new cars, fewer used cars are getting traded in. The demand for used cars is increasing while the supply is decreasing, causing the prices for used cars to rise.

And when the makers of new cars end up with much more supply than people are demanding, prices drop.

The Associated Press reports that the average cost of a used, dealer-certified 2008 Honda Accord EX sedan was $21,544 earlier this month. A brand-new 2009 model was reported to cost $80 less.

Throw in the zero- or low-interest financing available on many new cars, compared with 6 or 7% on used cars, and you just might end up saving thousands of dollars by buying new.

Like I said, these are crazy times.

Will your next car purchase be a new or used vehicle? If you plan to buy used, will you want a certified used car?

-tgriffith

Scanning the Auto Blogosphere

Terrafugia's Transition in flight

The auto-blog world offers lots of coverage of a few big stories this week. As we noted in our last post, Congress will consider a “Cash for Clunkers” bill that would offer a voucher of $3,000-5,000 to anyone trading in an older car for a new one assembled in North America that costs less than $35,000 and gets at least 27 mpg on the highway. New-car deals get sweeter and sweeter, eh?

The government also earned a lot of auto-blog coverage today by approving a $5 billion plan to provide help to automotive parts suppliers, which have been hurt badly by the Big Three’s cuts in North American vehicle production. The Detroit News has lots of details.

Another topic that’s gotten lots of coverage today has to do with the latest J.D. Power vehicle dependability study results. Surprisingly enough, Buick and Jaguar both managed to outscore perennial winner Lexus this year, which took third. eGMCarTech has full results and the press release.

Two more stories generated auto-blog buzz this week. A number of folks published stories on the debut flight of Terrafugia’s Transition flying car (above). It’s still got a long way to go before you’ll find one at a local dealer, and the Transition doesn’t look particularly graceful airborne, but the (very short) video looks promising.

MR2 fans are getting into a lather over another story reported this week: Toyota is considering a performance hybrid based on a special version of the Prius’s powertrain that will carry on the name of Toyota’s much-loved roadster. Auto Express’s “artists’s impressions” look pretty hot.

We’ll conclude this week’s article with a couple of quick bits about the Big Three that suggest the times really are a’changing.

First, GM CEO Rick Wagoner said Tuesday that he thought increasing the federal gasoline tax to price gas at $4 per gallon is “worthy of consideration” (you’ll see that quote in almost every article on this topic). While gas taxes are regressive and therefore unfair, Europeans’ generally much higher gas taxes have driven them to select much more fuel efficient and environmentally friendly cars as a group. And that wouldn’t be such a bad thing here, would it?

Finally, as Chrysler happily points out on its own blog, the state of Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality has awarded a Clean Corporate Citizen award to the Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance (GEMA) plant in Dundee, MI. The GEMA plant is a joint venture of Chrysler, Hyundai, and Mitsubishi, so they can’t take all the credit, but it’s nice to see Chrysler participating in an exceptionally clean, efficient, and low-impact manufacturing process.

Anything you’d like to see get more - or less - coverage here on the CarGurus Blog?
Let me know.

-Steve Halloran

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