How Used Cars Can Be Greener Than Hybrids

Used Vehicles and the Environment

Perhaps there is no greater symbol of man’s relationship with the environment than that of the oil platform. The fact is that Americans are addicted to oil, along with the rest of the world. We use it for heating, power, transportation, plastic, and many other necessities that make up nearly every part of modern life. So why would used cars be an environmental boon?

hybrids

Many people look at the environmental crisis and are driven to buy a hybrid. These cars require less gasoline to run because they also use electric batteries. However, most of them require an enormous amount of energy to build, by some estimates, in the neighborhood of a hundred million BTUs of energy, about the same as a thousand gallons of gasoline. That means every new hybrid on the market has already driven the equivalent of nearly 50,000 miles or more, when comparing BTU usage.

Also, hybrids cause serious problems when it comes to emissions. These vehicles run on two engines, which drives production costs through the roof in terms of air quality. In addition, electric batteries are full of dangerous chemicals, many of which are mined in the open in areas with less stringent environmental policies than the United States, a classic example of charge shifting. It is estimated that many hybrids actually leave the environment worse off due to the material cost of transporting heavy batteries across the ocean in tanker trucks. And while plug-in cars sound like a good idea, the electricity used to power them comes from a coal plant, which can cause more pollution than gasoline, in the long run.

The manufacturing process

When considering the environmental impact of a car purchase, MPG is often the first condition that comes to mind. This is not an entirely wrong move, as the more efficient the car, the less energy it will expend and the less pollutants it will release into the atmosphere. However, every new car requires energy to produce. This is true for traditional SUVs, plug-in electric vehicles, and hybrids.

Used cars

Used cars, on the other hand, have already been produced, so they don’t add any new burden to the environment. This, of course, is especially true for well-maintained vehicles that are already fuel-efficient. The environmental savings of buying a compact car with an MPG of around 35, for example, are immense. Many recent studies have shown that used cars are often a better environmental investment than a new hybrid, simply due to the lack of manufacturing costs and the efficiency of many passenger vehicles of the late 1990s and early 2000s. At the end of the day, the rusty bucket might just beat the shiny new hybrid, even with all the marketing in the world.