What is the carbon footprint of a hybrid vehicle, including the production of and disposal of the battiy(s).?

Question

What is the carbon footprint of a hybrid vehicle, including the production of and disposal of the battiy(s).?

Answer 1

We dispose of millions of car batteries per year.

Answer 2

That depends on the vehicle.  Hybrids span the range from the 20 mpg Tahoe hybrid to the 47 mpg Prius.

However, production only accounts for 5-10% of a car's lifetime energy use (as opposed to 80-90% during the operational phase).  Disposal is also 5-10%.  See pages 4-5 here:

http://www.pacinst.org/topics/integrity_...

And the batteries are fully recyclable.  See the bottom of this page:

http://www.toyota.com/html/hybridsynergy...

So the carbon footprint of a hybrid is significantly lower than that of a comparable non-hybrid, because the vast majority of the energy (and carbon) use comes during its operation while driving around, where the hybrid is more efficient.

Answer 3

Well, batteries are recycled/rebuilt rather than being disposed of. We still have to determine how n=many times in the lifetime that recycling will take place.

Carbon footprint is closely related to vehicle weight. With efforts to get larger vehicles made hybrid first, that could mean they will not be as eco friendly as we would hope.