How Green is the Toyota Prius?

I should first preface this article with my views on hybrids so you see where I am coming from. I think they are dangerous, expensive, and by far not the "greenest" vehicles you can drive. Their silent engine is hazardous for pedestrians and cyclists (I know a few people that have been hit by Priuses while cycling). They cost more than $20,000, cheap for a car but equal to the cost of about 20 bikes or 4 used Honda civics and their environmental impact is questioned. I found a few articles about the environmental impact of the Prius, here and here. These articles question the life cycle of the Prius and the toxicity of its batteries. Although some of the research is questioned it gets one thinking about Toyota's transparency and begs the question, "how green is Toyota as a company?" As brands making green claims should be green across their company.

If we look at the Prius with the "green" guage that most people look at (MPG) than the Prius looks great with an EPA MPG rating of 52 city 45 Hwy. However if we look at some of Toyota's other cars we can see that this is not the case. Toyota also produces the Tundra (15/19 MPG), The Land Cruiser (13/18 MPG), Sienna (17/23 MPG), and FJ Cruiser (17/22 MPG). Not exactly the most environmentally friendly fleet if you ask me.

Perhaps the car company that should be touting their "greeness" is not Toyota, but Volkswagon.

A Jetta TDI (at about the same price point) gets an MPG of 30 city 41 HWY, can be run on clean-burning petroleum-free Biodiesel (even regular diesel is pretty damn clean these days with the newer ultra-low sulfur diesel required in the US) and will run for upwards of 300,000 miles (diesel engines are very durable). Volkswagon also fares better in the whole company MPG game. Their least fuel efficient vehicle the Touareg gets 14/20 but most of their vehicles average in the high 20s with their TDIs all in the 30/42 range. I can see why Volkswagon doesn't want to jump in on the US Hybrid dominated "green" car market with all the hype the Prius has here. Than again maybe they are just waiting to get on the green bandwagon when they release the L1, perhaps the greenest car ever produced.

My band on the other hand by band, Fueled By Oppression, has quite a different opinion about the Prius. Just take a listen to our song End All Be All (shameless plug).