Essay --

How Hybrids Beat Out the Electric Vehicle in the US Automarket Car companies like Toyota and Honda are finally starting to warm up to the idea of marketing more fuel-efficient vehicles, introducing models like the Toyota Prius, the Toyota Highlander Hybrid, and the Honda Civic Hybrid, the three top-selling hybrid vehicles on the market for 20061. While these more fuel-efficient cars do increase the MPG rating to averages of 47mpg, 25mpg, and 46mpg2, one has to wonder why car companies are still turning out vehicle models that are dependent on gasoline at all. In the mid-1990's GM introduced the EV1 in response to the California Air Resources Board (CARB)'s 'zero-emissions' standards, a vehicle that got 55-75 miles per charge (mpc) with lead-acid batteries and 75-150 mpc with the Generation 2 Ovonic nickel-metal hydride batteries3 without zero emissions at the vehicle level whatsoever. So why have car companies forsaken the electric vehicle in favor of the low-emission (but still emitting) hybrid? Car companies like Toyota and Daimler-Chrysle r have partnerships with oil companies like ExxonMobil to improve fuel-economy standards for future vehicles, but none of them involve the development of an all-electric vehicle. Simply, the Bush Administration, backed by oil companies and car manufacturers, can not profit from the mass-production of electric vehicles. Instead, hybrid vehicles that still consume oil and emit greenhouse gases, are this century's compromise between environmentalists and Bush's Big Oil. General Motors has a history of partnering with oil companies to increase profits, starting with the Great American Streetcar scandal in the early 20th century. National City Lines, a holding company of Genera... ...ons. ExxonMobil, February 2006. www.exxonmobil.com 7 Shell Hydrogen: About Shell Hydrogen http://www.shell.com/home/Framework?siteId=hydrogen-en&FC2=/hydrogen-en/html/iwgen/leftnavs/zzz_lhn2_0_0.html&FC3=/hydrogen-en/html/iwgen/about_shell/who_we_are_1208.html 8 Flomenhoft, Gary: ESCI 420 In-class lecture, 2/7 9 Energy Task Force - Wikipedia.com 10 Taxpayers for a Common Sense Whitepaper Website: Vehicles that Qualify for the SUV Tax Break. http://www.taxpayer.net/TCS/whitepapers/SUVtaxbreak.htm 11 Toyota Website: Vehicles: RAV-4 EV http://www.toyota.com/html/shop/vehicles/ravev/rav4ev_0_home/index.html 12 Tesla Motors website - www.teslamotors.com 13 "Who Killed the Electric Car?" Documentary: Sony Pictures Classics, 2006. 14 Toyota Website: Vehicles: RAV-4 EV http://www.toyota.com/html/shop/vehicles/ravev/rav4ev_0_home/index.html