Comparison hybrid mileage

I recently went to a green car show as part of Earth Day and saw that the Camry Hybrid gets 34mpg. My gasoline Honda Civic gets 29mpg... which led me to think, would I incur the cost of switching just for 5mpg extra? Definitely not especially since my gasoline car is only 2 years old. So it was with great delight when someone mentioned this site, which provides a hybrid mileage database. Click here for a comparison chart. Smaller sedans get higher mileage than larger ones (due to weight).

A Talk by Sherry Boschert - Plug-in Hybrid Enthusiast

As originally published on AskPatty.com, entitled "Where can I buy an electric car?"

I recently attended a talk by Sherry Boschert, the author of "Plug-In Hybrids: The Cars That Will Recharge America". Sherry got into plug-in hybrid when she put in solar panel on her home in foggy San Francisco. Once one gets free electricity from the sun, the logical next step, obviously, is to figure out what else could be plugged in. Today, she has been driving an all-electric Toyota RAV4 for 5 years now, and hasn’t been to a gas station in 5 years. Some people has racked up over 100K miles on the RAV4 and the battery is still doing well. I am sure you are wondering, by now, whether it makes sense to drive an electric car if you don't have solar panels.

But first, let's look at the two flavors of electric vehicles – partial and full electric vehicles. Both depend on batteries to store electricity that is generated by several possible means. An example of a partial electric vehicle is today's hybrid, which runs on gasoline, and produces electricity through regenerative braking. A plug-in vehicle (PHEV) is a step-up. Some of today’s hybrid can been converted by a third party to be plugged into regular electric outlet, further reducing its dependency on oil. They work on regular 110V outlets, although the 220V outlets for washer/dryer will recharge the car faster. Compared to regular hybrids, a PHEV needs more batteries, and is an intermediate step until full battery-electric vehicles (BEV) become commonly available.

According to a 2007 National Resource Defence Council (NRDC) and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) study, PHEV reduces GHG between 7-46% compared with hybrids, in the study timeframe of 2010-2050. This will happen even in heavy coal state such as Idaho and Ohio. Plug-in electric vehicles is probably the quickest way to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emission, right now. It is something we can do today to make significant progress on the problem of global warming.

Experts present the following arguments on why electric cars are better than gasoline, better than fuel cells. The gist is that they are cheaper, cleaner, and use domestic power sources. Unlike fuel-cell vehicles, which require an infrastructure for refueling stations (since they use compressed hydrogen as fuel), the infrastructure for powering plug-in electric cars already exists. It is our national grid! Assuming the average American grid, which is still 50% coal and hence polluting, the wells-to-wheel emission for electricity is still lower than that of regular gasoline. Wells-to-wheel measure refers to the total pollutants produced by vehicles and by their power sources. This is an inclusive measure of carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emission. In addition, in case you are wondering how the US grid can support all our automobiles, the US Department of Environment has just released a study this year assessing the impact of PHEV on electric utilities and regional US power grids. The study says that existing off-peak grid capacity can already fuel daily commutes for 73% of all US cars, trucks, SUVs and vans as PHEV.

A tricky problem we face with automobile emission reduction is that we have millions and millions of individual emission points. Each of these pollution sources (i.e. each of our cars) will have to be cleaner to make a dent on the climate change issue. This is a mass coordination effort, which could be multiplied if car technology were to gradually shift into cleaner and cleaner technology. However, if PHEV or BEV were available today, then we only need to change our cars once to be cleaner. If all cars run on electricity, then the emission problem is shifted from millions of tailpipes to hundreds of power plants. Greening fewer enormous pollution sources is a lot easier than greening hundreds of millions of cars all over the world. Since even with today's power plant mix, we will already emit less if everyone shifts to electric cars, we are starting from a cleaner picture, with improvement opportunity as power plants use more renewable energy sources.

However, the sad news is, neither PHEV nor BEV is currently available to mass consumers (unless you can afford the 100K Tesla). The major automobile makers are focusing on FCEV, which uses hydrogen fuel cells for electricity, instead of the plug. According to the Plug-In Partners America website, an advocacy group for PHEV, “just a few short years ago each of the major automakers were building all-electric cars, trucks, or vans in order to meet the Zero Emissions Mandate for the California Air Resource Board. Today, none of these same companies are building all-electric vehicles. Today, no major Automaker is selling plug-in hybrids. So where can people get plug-ins?”

If you are interested in taking action to encourage automobile makers to sell PHEV, check out the Plug-in Partners National PHEV Initiative website. It is “a national grass-roots initiative to demonstrate to automakers that a market for flexible-fuel Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) exists today”. As a consumer, you can sign the Plug-in Petition. In addition, if your workplace has a fleet of vehicle, Plug-in Partners is garnering “soft” fleet order of PHEV, with no financial commitment, to demonstrate that market demand exists. You can also ask the California Air Resource Board (CARB) to do everything possible to get plug-in cars on the road (link here). CARB is reviewing the Zero Emission Vehicle mandate this year.

Personally, like Sherry, I now have solar panels on my roof, and am keenly looking into a plug-in or full battery electric car. Since the major automobile makers do not have any offering in the market, I will have to look at the second-hand market (e.g. Toyota RAV4), alternative neighborhood electric car manufacturers, or buy a hybrid and find a conversion partner. It is a hassle to shop for and involves way too much research. However, it is worth the effort since I have to do my part to fight climate change. I will keep you posted on my adventure shopping for one, and also what I learn about the possibility of obtaining such a car as a consumer, TODAY.

(Source: 2001 U.S. DOE Argonne National Lab, 2007 NRDC/EPRI. Both studies use the sophisticated Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation (GREET) system for analysis. Details here.)

Who is greener? Well, that depends...

As originally published on AskPatty.com. Here's the excerpt...

This week I happened to chance upon two situations of people debating their relative environmental impacts, with each side thinking she is more eco-friendly. In both cases, one party owns a more efficient vehicle while the other insists she lives a lower impact lifestyle overall despite having a less efficient vehicle.

So in this post, I will compare the vehicle usage patterns of two drivers – one a hybrid owner (Driver A), and one an SUV owner (Driver B). At first glance, A appears more environmental because she drives a hybrid, but let’s verify whether this is true with some numbers based on these two drivers’ actual life styles.

	Driver A	Driver B
Vehicle owned	Hybrid Toyota Prius	SUV Dodge Durango
Vehicle spec	2006 4 cyl, 1.5L	2006 4WD 8 cyl, 4.7 L, Auto(5)
Vehicle MPG (City/Hwy)	60/51	12/17
EPA Air Pollution Index* (0-Worst, 10-Best)	8	1
Daily commute (each way)	60 miles, highway	6 miles, town

* The EPA Air Pollution score represents the amount of health-damaging and smog-forming airborne pollutants the vehicle emits. This score does not include emissions of greenhouse gases.

This translates to an annual commute impact of…

	Driver A	Driver B	Difference (A minus B)
Miles driven per year	30,000 miles	3,000 miles	27,000 miles
Annual fuel use*	541 gallons	187 gallons	354 gallons
Annual fuel cost	$1623	$561	$1062
Annual CO2 Emission**	10,584 lbs	3,669 lbs	6,915 lbs

Assumes 250 working days , gasoline at $3/gallon. Sources:
* http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/findacar.htm
** http://www.terrapass.com/road/carboncalc.php

Driver A (hybrid owner) actually generates 6,915lbs more of CO2 than Driver B (SUV owner)! The clearest lesson to be taken from this is that simply living close to work can be a major environmental gain. Even though buying a hybrid electric car is a great thing, it doesn’t necessarily make you environmentally responsible in the big picture. In this real life case if you look at the bigger picture there’s an even wider discrepancy between these two drivers since Driver B is close enough to walk to work twice a week (cutting back emissions and gasoline by another 40%), while driver A lives by himself in a large house that takes a lot of energy to heat.

To truly understand one’s impact on the environment, accounting for the bigger picture of your daily car usage pattern and lifestyle is important. Accounting is usually valued only as a monetary cost, but for true comparison, we need to factor in economic costs too – which would take into account the opportunity cost of the next best alternative, and the externality cost to society and environment. Be aware too, that although carbon accounting is important, it is not the only story. Other greenhouse gases (e.g. methane, N2O) contribute to climate change too. Pollution from cars contributes to smog and health problems, not to mention odor nuisance and noise pollution. One’s lifestyle determines one’s eco-footprint – how many planets worth of resources are needed to support human race if everyone consumes at the same rate as us. I will explore eco-footprint in a future post.

Each of us makes choices based on our own very unique needs, budget, and preferences. Sure, a Hummer is downright excessive when you look at its environmental impact. But what about the more-efficient-than-a-Hummer, but still less-efficient-than-a-sedan SUV or pickup truck? In some cases, they may actually make sense to own! An outdoor enthusiast with a lot of equipment who needs to drive regularly to the ski resort on a mountain may need an SUV. A renovating homeowner who is doing regular hardware store run to pickup lumbers and other large-sized supplies need a pickup truck. It is simply too cost ineffective to pay Home Depot to deliver several times a month…

So in my opinion, simply being aware of the impact of one’s action on the environment is a good start. From there, the next step is to evaluate alternatives on how to do better, if you can afford to do so, and if not, when you can start doing better. Sometimes it is as simple as paying an extra $5K for the Honda Civic hybrid. Other times, it is a toss-up between your conscience and a roomier SUV because you make a lot of trips with 4 other passengers. Perhaps the decision to buy a smaller or more efficient car will have to wait in certain situations, e.g. till the kids go away to college. The key is to constantly evaluate your personal situation and make the most responsible decision you can, based on your own unique situation. If however, you do not yet own a car or is currently ready to switch, the best decision is to buy the most efficient car you can possibly afford, because once you go down the path of owning a particular vehicle, the switching cost will become another limiting factor.

The next time a friend challenges your automobile choice or transportation options, show them the tables above, and have a discussion about the bigger picture of both your commute pattern and lifestyle choices. The answer is usually a lot fuzzier than just choosing a more efficient car.

In summary, to all car owners out there – please do enjoy your vehicle, but please do actively consider the impact of your driving pattern and vehicle usage on the environment. You can be green by actively thinking about what else you can do to negate the carbon/GHG impact of daily vehicular usage. Here’s an inspiring example from Hewlett Packard 2006 Global Citizenship Report: "We estimate that for our monochrome LaserJet products, the total energy consumption saved since 1993 from use of [instant-on fusing] represents 4.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), equivalent to removing 870,000 cars from the road for one year.”

Remember, we can all be our own “power of one”. What’s the one change that you can make today to offset your carbon footprint?