DaveinOlyWA said:
AndyH said:
Dave - it's a damn shame (I agree with you there!) but Guy's right - a tiny fuel economy increase on the most-driven vehicles completely dwarfs the fuel savings from the hybrid and BEV fleet today.
Home and office energy efficiency, and farm energy efficiency is also orders of magnitude better than BEVs and hybrids - even after all personal transportation is electrified.
BEVs are very important - but right now their benefit to society is little more meaningful than the boil on a flea on a dog's back is to the dog.
that unfortunately, is the public's perception of the situation. they really couldn't be farther from the truth
2013 F150 2WD 3.7L 6cyl 15,000 miles per year, 600,000 annual sales, 13 MPG city[1] 1153.8 gallons per year each; 692.3 million gallons per year
2014 F150 2WD 3.7L 6cyl 15,000 miles per year, 600,000 annual sales, 17 MPG city[2] 882.4 gallons per year each; 529.4 million gallons per year
A four mile per gallon change saves 271.4 gallons per year per truck, or 162.9 million gallons compared with another year of 2013 sales.
Prius, 15,000 miles per year, 145,200 annual sales[3], 51 MPG[4] 294.1 gallons per year each; 42.7 million gallons of gas per year fleetwide
Prius, 15,000 miles per year, 145,200 annual sales, 55 MPG 272.7 gallons per year each; 39.6 million gallons of gas per year fleetwide
A hypothetical shift of 4 MPG here from 51 MPG to 55 mpg only saves 21.4 gallons of gas per year per vehicle, or 3.1 million gallons across the fleet.
If all Prius owners sold their 2013 cars for the mythical 55 MPG hybrid, they would gain only about 2% of the fuel savings from the fuel economy increase in the F150 fleet.
As long as trucks are needed by our society, it's better for carbon emissions to cut their fuel use than to increase the size of the Prius fleet 12 times.
[1]
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=34528
[2]
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=33184
[3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius
[4]
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=33324