Once a hybrids battery outlives its usefullness evironmentally speaking, what do we do?

Question

We all are aware of the problems with polution and as consumers we seem to be taking the proper steps forward (a little to slow, but we are moving). So we are buying all these hybrid vehicles for higher mpg and less air polution, but are we just trading up air polution for land polution? These hybrids are hybrids because they are partially battery powered. Americans throw out tons of batteries into landfils daily polluting our environment with mercury, cooper and other little nasties found in batteries. My question is what are we going to do with all these hybrid batteries which are going to start to flood the marketplace once we are done with them?

Answer 1

Kinsey got it, we simply recycle the batteries.

Answer 2

Hi, get comfy...

speaking for Toyota, there is an 800 number on each nickel metal hydride battery (the one that provides the energy to move the Prius, Camry, or Highlander Hybrids) and that number allows a person to turn in that battery for a $200 bounty.

The entire battery, just like almost every little bit of those vehicles, is completely recyclable.

However, Toyota has yet to have a nickel metal hydride (NiMH) battery fail during normal use. And the current record is over 360,000 miles on a Prius using the original NiMH battery and hybrid system. That's not a typo, anything else you may have seen is an urban myth.

The alkaline batteries that people use and throw out are a different type of battery than what is in vehicles like the Prius. The Hybrid Synergy Drive unit that Toyota developed is designed to keep the NiMH battery in a mid-peak charge range, trying not to top-charge it or, of course, completely discharge it.

That enables a NiMH to last fairly indefinitely. Obviously, there will be some breakdown eventually, but one of the great things about the Prius system, for example, is the NiMH battery is composed of 36 individual cells. If one cell goes bad, it can be replaced and the remainder stay. That is what's happened when Toyota has torture tested the Prius in Alaska and Death Valley.

Working with Toyota, I know about their commitments to recycling and the environment (Toyota's web site lists environmental reports dating back many years). I know Honda has a strong commitment as well, I'm just not familiar enough to state what they do in detail. And Nissan uses the Toyota system, so the recycling program should be the same.

Beyond that, there is Ford, Dodge, and GM that currently have a hybrid of one level or another on the road. Each uses at least a generator and some, like Ford, use a small NiMH battery also. I'm sure if each doesn't have a recycling program, write them and they'll start one. I'm uncertain which, if any, program each has in place.

Any other questions, feel free to contact me.

Answer 3

The hybrid batteries are recyclable let alon rechargeable. Thus not throwing them into land fills they are being used again and again.

Answer 4

but even rechargable batteries wear out...

and they're still pretty d**n bad for the environment...

personally I think taking the petrol car you have and improving it's efficency just in the slightest and sharing what you've found prolongs our oil supply untill we can figure out something that's more ecofriendly...

considering that an electric car charges from a power point, which leads either to a coal fired powerstation (CO2 emitions) or a nuclear powerstation (for more powerful H2O emitions coupled with nuclear waste)...

and lets not get into how much power it takes to sperate hydrogen for fuel cells >_>...

so untill we can find something to wean us off fossil fuels the best bet is to keep researching anything and everything, and making what we have last longer... (concieveably with enough mechanical, electrical, and physical minds devoted to efficency an internal combustion engine would only be needed For it's exaust)...

the best way to help the environment is to reuse what we already have and (some people will hate me for this...) not buy a new car... if you went to a junk yard and reconditioned a nice old straight 6 engine for a fairly bland chassis then that engine and chassis isn't hurting the environment by being left to rot... and the new car you would have otherwise bought wouldn't get that same fate...