Does it really cost more to produce a Toyota prius than a Hummer?

Nickel in the batteries in the prius are mined in plants that do terrible damage to the envirnment, and the cars themselves incur more cost during their lifetime than do Hummers. Is this true?|||Let's put to rest this urban myth about Hummers being better for the environment than Prius. Get comfy...





The plant in Sudbury where Toyota buys approximately 1.5% of the plant's annual nickel output can be seen using this Google maps address:





http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q%26amp;hl=en%26amp;la鈥?/a>





Sudbury, Ontario is called the mining capital of the world for good reason.





The Sudbury plant has been in continuous operation since the rock was blasted to make way for the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1883.





That means that nickel has been mined there for the last 124 years. The Prius has been on the road since 1999. What about all the environmental damage done for the 116 years before the Prius ever came along?





There used to be a great deal of pollution at the Sudbury plant, just like there was at a lot of factory facilities. However, new pollution controls are in place and Sudbury residents themselves will talk about how things are improving dramatically in the area around the plant. Young trees are growing there, even now.





Another thing noted about the area around the plant is the Apollo astronauts trained there. It has been said that the area around the plant was as lifeless a wasteland as the moon. Actually, the astronauts trained there because the rock formations were similar to those on the moon. This area of Ontario was hit by a meteorite which created a basin and caused much of the look of the area. The moonscape feeling is also from the slag heaps from smelter output. Anyone who has ever seen any factory facility knows there is always a large amount of material left over from the original raw materials, be that a nickel plant, a steel smelter, or a dog food producer.





Also the environmental damage is not all due to the nickel plant - there is other industry, and a lot of the trees disappeared due to extensive logging.





Take a look for yourself. Here's a breakdown:





The Sudbury nickel plant produces around 60,000 tons of nickel per year. If Toyota buys 1000 tons/year, that's around 6% of the total output.





I have personally presented a Prius battery to local safety responders and fire department personnel. The entire pack weighs 117.47 pounds, which is the components as well as the actual nickel itself. The nickel weighs about 50 pounds. So that's 50lb per Prius, with 2000 pounds per ton, that's 40 Prius per ton of nickel.





Considering the plant puts out 120,000,000 pounds of nickel each year, each Prius uses about 0.000024 of the annual production of the Sudbury plant. Please double check my math and contact me if I need to make any corrections.





So, let's use common sense when looking at a vehicle like a Prius and what it uses for fuel, space, and amount of material to build. And then let's consider what a vehicle like a Hummer would require in those three areas. Obviously, the Hummer consumes much more resources, and the same basic types of resources, as the Prius.





Any other questions on this, or any other aspect of the Prius or Toyota, please contact me.|||the only thing i know is that you don't get nickel from plants.|||If you are talking about damage to the environment, you are correct. See the URL for the article below.|||The article from that website seems a little ridiculous. Do the really only expect the Prius, a TOYOTA, to only last 100,000 miles. Or even more surprising that the Hummer will last for 300,000 miles, ha ha. All I know is the Prius is definatly a step in the right direction and the Hummer is most certainly not.|||Yes its true. The Hummer is cheap to produce because it is built on a very high volume platform (2 million or so vehicles) so the development and tooling costs can be spread out over a lot of vehiles. The Prius doesnt have this. The batteries are very expensive to produce and yes the do horrible damage to the environment.





As for the Hummer lasting 300k miles. If you take care of it sure it will last. The Prius will need new batteries long before that at a cost of $2,500+. It pretty much will total your car out because buying new batteries will cost more than the car is worth. Most people think you will need new batteries at 100k miles. Thats where the lifetime miles come from. I dont drive on so I dont know.|||Nazim is not very smart,the nickel must be smelted which is done inside a plant.Nothing grows around this plant because of the pollution from it.|||It's not using less energy to make they are comparing apples to watermelons. Not only are their numbers grossly exaggerated but they aren't doing the comparison correctly.





$3.25 per mile over 100,000 miles is $325,000


$1.95 per mile over 300,000 miles is $585,000


Interesting...seems like more energy cost in the hummer to initially build. Plus...if that's the energy cost to make one car why doesn't the price reflect that? The base H3(the one i've been using so far) sells for $30k. The base prius sells for $22k. I find it hard to beleive that a company LOSES that much money every time they sell a car...





And on another note. The new EPA ratings for the prius is at 45 average the hummer at 15 average. Gasoline right now is $2.90 here.





Prius over 200k miles is 4,444 gallons coming out to $12,887.60 for gasoline.





Hummer over 200k miles is 13,333 gallons coming out to $38,665.70 for gasoline.





That's a $25,778.10 extra spent on gasoline alone on the consumer side.





So over 200k miles INCLUDING $3,000 for a new battery at 100k miles the prius comes out to $37,887 plus normal maintenance for a toyota.





The hummer $68,665 over the life of the car with normal maintenance for a GM product(which we all know is alot I currently own a GM prduct(yuck)).





Yeah, that plant pollutes like crazy *in that one area*. Is it better to have one bad place and alot of good places to breathe or all over being an OK place to breathe...Plus, any gasoline you buy ends up sending money to people to help kill our troops...gotta love those hypocritical bumper stickers.|||Professor of prius is 10000% correct. That CCCU research is so biased it's not even funny. Wonder how much money GM contributes to that campus each year? Another thing that plant in Sudbury has been producing nickel for over a century. It wasn't the Prius that caused the damage in that region. *Edit* I just noticed I wrote the same thing as the Professor. File me under The Department of Redundacy Department.