Misperceptions of a Green Market
http://cnwmr.com/nss-folder/automotiveenergy/
Several recent studies focusing on the overall energy expenditures including lifetime production and consumption costs expose another perspective on the environmental costs of the Prius and similar hybrid automobiles. For several years,
Coastal Northwest Marketing Research (CNW) has compiled a thorough analysis of overall “total cost of energy to society” involved in the lifetime of automobiles (including production expenditures) referred to as the ‘Dust to Dust’ Automotive Energy Report. CNW claims the report was created as a consumer resource, and they received no monetary support from any industry or outside source.
The findings from the report claim that extra production and shipping energy expenditures for the hybrids actually raise their overall environmental impact beyond most conventional vehicles. CNW states,
“A Honda Civic has a dust-to-dust energy cost of $2.42/mile, compared to the Honda Civic Hybrid which has a dust-to-dust energy cost of $3.238/mile. This means that although the hybrid version has better fuel efficiency, over the entire life of the car, the Honda Civic will be using less energy than the Honda Civic Hybrid.” An
automotive energy use survey composed by Environment Canada also cites, “as much as 20% of all the energy consumed throughout the life of a vehicle goes into its manufacture.”
Source: http://www.gnn.tv/articles/3200/The_Green_Shift