I’ve heard rumors stating that hybrid cars hurt our enviro due to excessive mining. Bolivia is a prime example, entire mountains are being cut away to accomodate the demand for the exquisite metals needed to build the batteries. Are there websites with the data and pictures?
There will always be some environmental impact from any product we use
but hybrids cause less than most other cars
Bolivia provides Lithium which is used in laptop batteries and the Tesla, but not in Hybrids which currently use Nickel metal hydride (NiMH)
The daily mail reported this pictured huge open cast Nickel mines in Sudbury Canada and blamed hybrids; but their pictures were over 10 years old and the mines had cleaned up their act before the advent of hybrids – there is much more nickel used in a Hummer than a hybrid battery.
Also Lithium and Nickel are easily recovered and recycled from car batteries after use, Toyota alrady have such facilities and buy-back programmes in place; unlike the exotic metal alloys and oil used in fossil fuel cars
There will always be some environmental impact from any product we use
but hybrids cause less than most other cars
Bolivia provides Lithium which is used in laptop batteries and the Tesla, but not in Hybrids which currently use Nickel metal hydride (NiMH)
The daily mail reported this pictured huge open cast Nickel mines in Sudbury Canada and blamed hybrids; but their pictures were over 10 years old and the mines had cleaned up their act before the advent of hybrids – there is much more nickel used in a Hummer than a hybrid battery.
Also Lithium and Nickel are easily recovered and recycled from car batteries after use, Toyota alrady have such facilities and buy-back programmes in place; unlike the exotic metal alloys and oil used in fossil fuel cars
References :
http://www.toyotapriusbattery.com/
Just wait for about another five or six years when all of these hybrid batteries will need replacement. More batteries required and more of these environmental nightmares to be disposed of.
Just like the "environmental friendly" twirly light bulbs that are full of mercury.
Environmentalist don’t think beyond their noses.
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That is a false criticism. The usual complaint is about nickel. The amount of nickel used in batteries is small compared to the amount used to make nickel steel and other uses. I do not believe one single new mine has been opened that wouldn’t have been if there were no hybrid cars. In fact I bet the amount of lead in all the regular car starter batteries is a lot more than all the nickel in all the hybrid cars’ batteries, and lead is worse than nickel, environmentally.
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If you have ever been to Kentucky you will see the effect of strip mining on hills the amount of damage done in Bolivia is tiny compared t the damage done for coal. There will always be a little damage to the environment with anything humans do however this is a matter of greater good or less damage.
Coal mining does more damage than nickel or lithium mining does.
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I have been to KY and seen the wholesale removal of 600 foot mountains
Lithium is rare.
Yet oil is even rarer.
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you know how much oil is used in the production of 1 car, hybrid or not??….add up all the initial mining, the foundries, the machines to do the mining, the machines that make the factories, the gas in the machines,the machines that make the machines that make the parts, distribution costs, the list goes on and on. all of that is done with oil. how much oil/gas can a hybrid save in the course of it’s life?? i don’t have figures for you, i think i’ll research that. I drive a 1977 vehicle to save the environment and ride 60′s motor scooters which can get up to 110mpg. the only solution that i can see is to drastically slow production
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Bolivia is currently the main source of lithium but the concerns are about peak lithium production i.e.: whether or not we can scale the mining of lithium up to meet demand. It’s far easier to find and exploit new oil reserves then it is to find and mine new lithium deposits. Also, the concern is about the geopolitical ramifications of becoming dependent on an unfriendly foreign government as a source for lithium.
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No matter what environmental damage is being done now its a small price to pay in the future. The batteries are mostly all recyclable and soon far less mining will be done to keep up with demand.
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