I heard the report on BBC World Service on the XM radio but have yet to find it on their web site. In the report, someone from "CarChat" referenced the CNW report about hybrid energy cost. Unfortuantely, I have not been able to catch and record the program to get the names. Regardless, I sent the following to the BBC via their web interface:

This evening while driving home, I heard a story on BBC radio asking 'How Green Are Hybrids.' Unfortunately, one of the people interviewed cited the flawed report by CNW Marketing about the amount of energy needed to make a hybrid: http://www.cnwmr.com/nss-folder/automotiveenergy/

In the GreenHybrid.com discussion group, we found that all hybrids were assigned a shorter vehicle life-span than their gas equivalent. This inflates the hybrid vehicle cost per mile. Worse, the Toyota 'Land Cruiser' was assigned more than double the life-time of the Prius, which brings the Land Cruiser cost down. Furthermore, the gas version was always given more miles per year than the equivalent hybrid, which suggests someone having both a hybrid and gas version of the same car would prefer to drive the costlier to fuel gas vehicle over the fuel efficient hybrid.

We suggest you look at the CNW data with a critical eye and contact Art Spinella. He is personable and enjoys interviews. However, we believe his report has a problem with the assigned vehicle life-time for all hybrids and several other cost areas that makes the conclusions suspect.

If you have some way to listen to BBC, see if you can pickup the report. I had the distinct impression they were interviewing someone talking about a report, the CNW report, rather than taking a critical look at it themselves. As for the Toyota representative defending the Prius, he was a dollar short and a day late.

Bob Wilson

 

Hi Bob, in response to initial query I also received a friendly reply from Mr. Spinella, but it included no justifications whatever for the "inflated" manufacturing and disposal costs of hybrid vehicles. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that CNW has something to sell. However, if you believe that they are worth an additional effort, I will give it a try. Sigh.

DAS

 

No, I don't think so. My concern is that the BBC has used someone who references the CNW report rather than looking at it directly and contacting Art. My report was to the BBC via the complaint form. Hopefully, someone will take a look and do the real investigation.

Bob Wilson