Hybrids are resource wasters
The Toyota Prius has become to the first decade of the 21st Century what gold chains and vans with murals were to the 1970s. Nothing says hip in 2009 a Prius. But it turns out that the Japanese hybrid is a bigger resource hog than a jacked up H1 Hummer with Monster Mudders.
MSNBC...of all freakin’ places…reports that Hybrids are using up Rare Earth Metals at an alarming rate.
The Prius hybrid automobile is popular for its fuel efficiency, but its electric motor and battery guzzle rare earth metals, a little-known class of elements found in a wide range of gadgets and consumer goods.
It turns out the Red China (which is not more Capitalistic than the U.S.) is the worlds leading supplier of rare earth metals, and is rather keen to use those in their own industry. Economists are expecting shortages of key rare earth metals in the near future.
Among the rare earths that would be most affected in a shortage is neodymium, the key component of an alloy used to make the high-power, lightweight magnets for electric motors of hybrid cars, such as the Prius, Honda Insight and Ford Focus, as well as in generators for wind turbines.
Close cousins terbium and dysprosium are added in smaller amounts to the alloy to preserve neodymium’s magnetic properties at high temperatures. Yet another rare earth metal, lanthanum, is a major ingredient for hybrid car batteries.
And it turns out that that that most “progressive” of gold chains, the Toyota Prius is among the least green vehicles when it comes to rare earth metals.
Jack Lifton, an independent commodities consultant and strategic metals expert, calls the Prius “the biggest user of rare earths of any object in the world.”
Each electric Prius motor requires around two pounds of neodymium, and each battery uses 22-33 pounds of lanthanum. That number will nearly double under Toyota’s plans to boost the car’s fuel economy, he said.
