Are toyota Prius' harmful?

Question

I heard the factory in Canada where the engines (or something) are made for these cars has been completely destroyed. It was supposably really green and lush, and now it's turned into some sort of desert wasteland around the factory. Is it true?

Answer 1

Here is a followup to that story...more hype than truth  (as usual)....STOP LISTENING TO THE INFOTAINMENT NEWS!!!

"Toyota factory

Last updated at 09:34am on 9th May 2007

It has come to our attention that a story originally published in the Mail on Sunday has apparently been misinterpreted by some of our readers.

In order to prevent further misinterpretation, we have removed the article from our website. The following letter was published in the Mail on Sunday on May 13, 2007:

Your article about the Inco nickel factory at Sudbury, Canada, wrongly implied that poisonous fumes from the factory had left the area looking like a lunar landscape because so many plants and trees had died. You also sought to blame Toyota because the nickel is used, among countless other purposes, for making the Prius hybrid car batteries.

In fact any damage occurred more than thirty years ago, long before the Prius was made. Since then, Inco has reduced sulphur dioxide emissions by more than 90 per cent and has helped to plant more than 11 million trees.

The company has won praise from the Ontario Ministry of Environment and environmental groups. Sudbury has won several conservation awards and is a centre for eco-tourism.

Dave Rado

Colchester"

Answer 2

Let's put to rest this urban myth about Hummers being better for the environment than Prius. Get comfy...

The Inco plant in Sudbury where Toyota buys approximately 1.5% of the plant's annual nickel output can be seen using this Google maps address:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&la...

Sudbury, Ontario is called the mining capital of the world for good reason.

The Sudbury plant has been in continuous operation since the rock was blasted to make way for the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1883.

That means that nickel has been mined there for the last 124 years. The Prius has been on the road since 1999. What about all the environmental damage done for the 116 years before the Prius ever came along?

There used to be a great deal of pollution at the Sudbury plant, just like there was at a lot of factory facilities. However, new pollution controls are in place and Sudbury residents themselves will talk about how things are improving dramatically in the area around the plant. Young trees are growing there, even now.

Another thing noted about the area around the plant is the Apollo astronauts trained there. It has been said that the area around the plant was as lifeless a wasteland as the moon. Actually, the astronauts trained there because the rock formations were similar to those on the moon. This area of Ontario was hit by a meteorite which created a basin and caused much of the look of the area. The moonscape feeling is also from the slag heaps from smelter output. Anyone who has ever seen any factory facility knows there is always a large amount of material left over from the original raw materials, be that a nickel plant, a steel smelter, or a dog food producer.

Also the environmental damage is not all due to the nickel plant - there is other industry, and a lot of the trees disappeared due to extensive logging.

Take a look for yourself. Here's a breakdown:

The Sudbury nickel plant produces around 60,000 tons of nickel per year. If Toyota buys 1000 tons/year, that's around 6% of the total output.

I have personally presented a Prius battery to local safety responders and fire department personnel. The entire pack weighs 117.47 pounds, which is the components as well as the actual nickel itself. The nickel weighs about 50 pounds. So that's 50lb per Prius, with 2000 pounds per ton, that's 40 Prius per ton of nickel.

Considering the plant puts out 120,000,000 pounds of nickel each year, each Prius uses about 0.000024 of the annual production of the Sudbury plant. Please double check my math and contact me if I need to make any corrections.

So, let's use common sense when looking at a vehicle like a Prius and what it uses for fuel, space, and amount of material to build. And then let's consider what a vehicle like a Hummer would require in those three areas. Obviously, the Hummer consumes much more resources, and the same basic types of resources, as the Prius.

Any other questions on this, or any other aspect of the Prius or Toyota, please contact me.

On a personal note, I have no problem with people being excited about new technology and rooting for the home team, whoever they may be.

However, I have a real problem with two year old computer reprogramming recalls being brought up as a current issue. I also have a problem with shoddy research and looking at half of the information available and twisting that info to suit an agenda.

I feel this is a forum that deals in useful information, not auto bashing.

On the idea of "hydraulic hybrids", this is from an article from Kettering University who is working with the EPA to develop the hydraulic hybrid system.

"The prototype hydraulic hybrid system weighs about 300 pounds more than a traditional engine gear box-powertrain combination, but still provides a 50 to 60 percent increase in fuel efficiency over a traditional enginepowertrain combination," Chandran said."

This is a statement from Dr. Ram S. Chandran, professor of Mechanical Engineering at Kettering University, who is part of a research team at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) working on perfecting the hydraulic hybrid technology.

This is from one of the central people working on the hydraulic hybrid concept. He states the improvement will be in the 50-60% range, not 300% or 400% improvement that is claimed by outside web sites.

As far as Ford, their own website states: "Ford research indicates that the installation of a HPA (hydraulic hybrid) system on a commercial van or medium-duty truck could increase fuel efficiency in stop-and-go driving by 30 to 35 percent and cut exhaust emissions by at least 20 percent." The Ford website states the system is for the E-550 and medium duty trucks, not for the F150. By their own numbers, mileage would increase 30-35%, not 300-400%.

There is a big difference between a system designed for a UPS delivery truck or an E550 and a four door Fusion sedan.

One caveat, the Ford website lists solid information from 2002 about the hydraulic hybrid, but very little since then. Possibly there is more being done then they are willing to make public, but this is a company that uses larger vehicles like the F150 as a major part of it's image and income. I would expect there would be more PR about this if there were more to report.

Thank you for reading this far.

Answer 3

no just dont put diesel in it

Answer 4

Read this article:

TOKYO October 14, 2005; The AP reported that Toyota is recalling 160,000 Prius gasoline-electric hybrid cars worldwide because their engines can stop due to an electrical problem, Japan's top automaker said Friday.

No accidents or injuries have been reported linked to the problem, in which engines in some Prius cars have stalled while driving, causing the vehicles to run just on the electric motor, Toyota Motor Corp. spokesman Hideki Fujii said. A glitch in the computer programming controlling the electronic units is believed to be behind the problem, he said.

The recall covers 75,000 Prius cars in the United States, 70,000 in Japan and the remainder in Europe, Australia and other markets, manufactured from August 2003 through February 2005.

Toyota is not disclosing the costs for the recall, Fujii said. Toyota dealers will repair affected vehicles for free.

Toyota, which started selling the Prius in 1997, has led the global auto market with hybrids, which switch back and forth between a gasoline engine and battery-powered electric motor to deliver the most efficient and ecological ride, depending on the driving conditions and speed of the car. Toyota sold 125,700 Prius vehicles globally last year.

The company began investigating the problem after the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration received reports of Prius engines stalling. But the problem is not an immediately safety problem because drivers can count on the hybrid's electric motor to steer to the side of the road, Fujii said.

NHTSA closed its investigation after Toyota said it would voluntarily recall the vehicles.

Please avoid older models, get the new ones. I heard Ford is coming with a vehicle 300% fuel saver than prius.

" Ford is developing a new form of automotive propulsion, and the implications for the American Auto Industry are huge. The Hydraulic Hybrid could be the greatest innovation since the internal combustion engine itself, and Ford is on the inside track with its F-150 Hybrid. New Tech Spy Has learned details about the system that are simply amazing and could put Ford in a commanding position in the fiercely competitive full size pickup market.

---The Idea behind the current crop of Hybrid cars is well known; the cars main energy comes from gasoline which recharges batteries that move the car at low speeds. Hydraulic Hybrids work in the same manner, only instead of batteries, excess energy is stored in hydraulic cylinders.That in itself is not revolutionary, except for the fact that Nickel Metal Hydride batteries used today are not an efficient way to store energy, and hydraulic storage blows them away with 3X the efficiency. Even next generation Lithium Ion batteries do not come close to Hydraulic Energy Storage.

---The standard F-150 has a curb weight of about 4800 lbs., which is 65% greater than theToyota Prius, yet incredibly the Hydraulic F-150 with a continuously variable transmission matches the Prius with 60mpg city rating, that’s an amazing 400% increase over its gasoline version.

---The F-150 makes for a perfect host for Hydraulic Hybrid technology because of its height and body on frame construction, adding this system to smaller vehicles will be challenging, but with those kind of numbers small vehicles as we know them may become obsolete...The Hydraulic F-150 is currently scheduled for launch in August of 2008, can Ford work out all the bugs by then? The people are waiting for Ford to come through in the clutch. "