Greener cars

Newer is not necessarily greener, and fuel economy is not the last word on emissions ["Cash for Clunkers," editorial, June 23]. Roughly 10 percent of a car's lifetime emissions is produced in manufacturing; an additional 5 percent comes from recycling the vehicle at the end. Often, junking an old car for a new one is less environmentally sound than driving a lower- mileage vehicle a few years longer.

The driver of a decade-old midsize sedan who scraps it two years earlier than planned will not so much as break even environmentally unless the car is driven more than 20,000 miles per year. Even then, buying a used vehicle is often the more prudent choice, financially and environmentally.

"Cash for Clunkers" will not guide people toward more fuel-efficient vehicles; even many sport-utility vehicles qualify. It simply puts more people in new cars.

Bad for the environment, bad for the budget, but good for the auto industry. Washington's stake in Detroit does appear to make a difference.

from the washington post

Obama's hybrid car plan has kinks

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s campaign pledge to put 1 million plug-in hybrid cars on the road by 2015 is fraught with difficulties, from technical and engineering hurdles to the realities of the economy and the price of gasoline.

It took eight long years to get 1 million hybrids on the road in the United States, and even a White House task force says one of the leading new plug-in cars being developed is too expensive to gain popularity any time soon.
Obama’s goal could help revitalize the fraught U.S. auto industry and begin shifting motorists away from gas. But many say it’s overly optimistic.
"The economics won’t make sense for the majority of Americans in the next several years,” said Brett Smith, who studies plug-in hybrid automobiles at the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Center for Automotive Research.
Plug-in hybrids allow motorists to drive a limited number of miles on battery power before the engine switches over to run on gasoline or other fuels.
The cars could radically reduce gas use because many commuters drive less than 40 miles a day.
Obama last month toured a California electric car facility where he announced $2.4 billion to develop advanced batteries and electric cars. The administration has said the vehicles would play a role in cutting dependence on foreign oil, cut greenhouse gas emissions and create "green” jobs.

During his campaign, Obama promised $4 billion in tax credits to automakers to revamp their plants to build plug-ins, and a $7,000 tax credit for consumers who buy early versions of the cars.
He even pledged to require half of the cars bought by the government to be plug-in or all electric by 2012.
Nancy Gioia, Ford’s director of hybrid vehicle programs, said that kind of goal would demand "unparalleled collaboration” among the government, the automobile industry and academia.

by the associated press