Re: Honda Civic Hybrid

["Dr. Bruce McFarling" <ecbm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Henry C.K. Liu" <hliu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote

on Sat, 17 Aug 2002 23:08:25 -0400,


> We need to distingusih saving gas from saving energy.  The hybrid cost
> $4K more (20%) than a comparably equipped Civic LX. That buys  2000
> gallons of gas at $2/gallon or 40,000 miles at 20 miles  to a gallon.
> Thay's about 4 years of average driving in the East Coast.


But that extra 20% is not likely to be proportional to the extra
energy cost of constructing the vehicle, so even though the extra
DOLLAR cost buys 2000 gallons of gas, the extra ENERGY cost
would be substantially less than that, resulting in an energy
payback in well under four years.

So I'll take your "we need to distinguish" and raise it: we
need to distinguish saving gas from saving energy FROM SAVING
MONEY.  The latter is a social contruction, not an ecological
impact.


And, yes, it is certainly no cure for the energy problem,

since the US lifestyle is so far from being sustainable
that a ten or twenty or forty percent reduction is not
enough to bring the burden to a level that could be
reproduced globally.  But when running headlong toward
a cliff, running less slowly toward the cliff is at
least an improvement.