Prius Needs Power
Published: August 4th, 2009
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Not selling power, mind you. In fact demand is so high for the new Prius that Toyota would like to increase production past its 500k/year projections. Too bad its battery supplier, Panasonic, can’t keep up. “Battery bottleneck,” howls Automotive News [sub], before admitting that Toyota has been building towards a million battery per year capacity. A year ago Toyota said they would reach that mark by 2011, now they are saying Summer 2010. Besides, what’s the hurry? “In terms of the Toyota lineup, I’d say [the Prius] is probably in the midlevel of profit,” reminds Toyota senior managing director Takahiko Ijichi. And all those batteries require more harmony between man, machine and nature. I mean nickel mines.
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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What??? The Pious is environmentally unfriendly??? Say it ain't so!!!
When Toyota comes out with its "Nothing-Air-Nothing" battery tech, all the detractors will be satisfied. Or not.
So is oil exploration and mining a lot prettier than nickel mining? I live in an oil rich part of the world and it doesn't seem so nice here. One should consider the amount of fuel saved vs. the amount of nickel used to evaluate the comparative mining damage. Regarding the toxic waste from Prius batteries argument - aren't these batteries easily recycled? One more thing - the sun can consume the Earth without the Earth getting closer - the sun will expand.
Nickel mining is pretty nasty, and the point here is that the Prius isn't as "green" as its advertising suggests. There is a trade off in production waste and environmental impact that is being ignored. Those of us who value truth (ie people who read The TRUTH About Cars) cringe at the hucksters who would have you believe that if we all bought hybrids we would save the environment. I value the technology because it is getting people to buy in to the R&D of new transportation solutions, but it is naive to think hybrid engines alone are our savior.