Are the emissions from hybrid cars the same as for a non-hybrid that gets the same gas mileage?

Question

The Lexus RX400h gets about 25 miles to the gallon. While this is better than the non-hybrid model, it is still not great mileage. I wonder whether the RX400h's emissions are the same as any other 25 MPG car, or does it pollute less?

Answer 1

If you drive a car that gets 25mpg, no matter how the mechanics work, you burn the same amount of gas, therefore the same amount of CO2 will go into the air, period.  This does mean the same pollution.

Note to responders:

Half the power of a hybrid does not come "from electricity."  All the power comes from the gasoline, a hybrid is just more efficient at using the energy.

Hybrids are not "tuned better" to run at a constant speed, it is in most cases just that they have smaller gasoline engines.

The current EPA estimates of mileage do not include running the air conditioning, and use low acceleration rates and low top speeds.  I'm interested to see how the estimates change next year.  Of course the hybrid lovers will claim a conspiracy against hybrids, but this is a response to people who actually believed the claims of mpg on the highway.

That being said, if we can find less environmentally unfriendly batteries, and could lower the cost of a hybrid, I might consider one.  And I'm quite pissed my taxes offset the cost of this fool's errand at the moment.

Answer 2

of cos it pollute less,n emissions r the same too

Answer 3

The emissions from a hybrid car will be a little better but not a great deal better.

Hybrid engines can be tuned to run at a constant speed and constant load. They can be tuned more efficiently than an engine that must be able to operate with a variety of speeds and loads.

Answer 4

Hybrid cars tend to have less emissions than a standard automobile with the same miles per gallon, primarily because they burn less gas. With the hybrid, (in general) half of the energy comes from electricity, and the other half comes from gas. While this may vary from the type of car to the type of car, in general the hybrid will have less emissions. When a car burns gasoline, the left-over waste is pollution that comes out of the exhaust pipe. Since the hybrids burn less gas than the average car because they gain some of their energy from electricity, they have lesser emissions.

Answer 5

Hello dear!

They are less and mainly far from inhabited regions!

Answer 6

Emissions come from the amount of fuel burned. Two gallons will emit twice as much as one gallon.

Answer 7

Well it depends on where the vehicle is being used.

In heavy city traffic the hybrids really shine they use no fuel to idle when the fuel engine runs it is loaded to were it is fairly efficient.

At highway speeds there is only a slight advantage to the hybrid based on the fact that they are a smaller motor.(less power more efficiency)

Burn a gallon (U.S.) of fuel in any car and it produces about 19 lb Co2. That's right almost three times the weight of the fuel. The extra weight comes from the two oxygen molecules in the intake air.

The high efficiency diesels coming out of Europe are far better on the open road. V.W. Has had a car called the Lupo out for several years now. It does 3litre/100 km (70mpg U.S.). They produced a concept car back in 2002 that used only 1 litre /100km (235 mpg U.S.)

http://www.carpages.ca/go/conceptcars/20...

Ride a bicycle or walk as often as you can that is even better again.

Answer 8

There's no way to tell for sure.  It totally depends on the emissions tuning of that particular engine.  For instance when the NZLEV desgination was invented (for super-low-emissions engines that went far beyond what the law required), one of the first NZLEVs was the Ford Mustang V8.  Who'd have guessed?

Answer 9

The Hybrid produces less emission because it runs on self generated electricity part of the time.