Do Green Cars Make People Drive More?

Mother Jones:

Treehugger reports that in Sweden, purchases of fuel-efficient cars are on the rise, but so are emissions. So does this mean that Swedes are actually driving more (and thus creating more emissions) because their new green cars allow them to do so more cheaply?

Read the whole story: Mother Jones

Comments

[djv1255]

08:06 AM on 04/19/2011

Mystery: Mr Connors's Chevy Volt was gutted in last week's blaze - but this morning its battery reignited in a second fire. #green #volt

[djv1255]

08:14 AM on 04/18/2011

Where is the Huffy Puffy story on the Chevy Volt suspected on burning down a garage? http://nlpc.org/stories/2011/04/15/chevy-volt-suspected-causing-house-fire

[aligatorhardt]

03:49 PM on 04/16/2011

Electric cars have no emissions. The use of dirty energy for making electricity is not the fault of electric cars. Install solar charging and emissions stay zero. There was no evidence presented by this article.

[Genders]

08:08 PM on 03/26/2011

Of course they drive further, it costs less and has less impact. Once solar wind and waste bio char are supplying th energy, it will simply be a question of cost, as it should be.

[sadie667]

10:55 AM on 03/14/2011

For those interested in green car technology, the new volvo plug-in hybrid is worth taking a look at. Drivers can actually switch from electric to biodiesel mode http://ecomobility.tv/2011/03/09/volvo-plug-in-hybrid/

[John02050]

09:05 AM on 03/09/2011

A 2010 Ford Fusion hybrid gets about 45 mpg.

My 1986 Mazda 626 LX had a 2.0L engine got 40 mpg. It required no lithium or silver (expensive hard-to-get rare earth metals) in the battery.

Henry Ford produced a car with the body made from a hemp-composite material. It was lighter and stronger than steel, and grown from the earth. It is featured in a 1941 edition of Popular Mechanics.

The Ford Motor Company produced cars which ran only on ethanol (moonshine), a common fuel (drink) produced on many farms, and the perfect way to power cars in the mostly rural country. These vehicles were discontinued before Prohibition ended.

Rudolph Diesel was unimpressed with the steam engine, and sought to produce an engine with greater efficiency. Thus he produced an engine which ran on vegetable oil, and showcased it at the 1905 World's Fair.

Car technology has gone horribly backward.

[RedRat]

01:37 PM on 03/08/2011

There is a similar article to the Mother Jones one in today's NYTimes Science Section (8Mar2011):
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/science/08tier.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

Interesting viewpoint. But like in all thing in life, we are constantly being asked to choose between two dissimilar things, i.e., apples or oranges. Pick one, you can't have both. We must weigh the impact of spewing more carbon into the atmosphere or having more fuel efficient cars. I think that you must take a very close look at exactly how cars are used in our society. Most, at least out here in the west, are used for commuting to work, so the same number of miles will be driven regardless of fuel efficiency. The "savings" if they are real, will be used as discretionary spending. However, another factor in the cost of the automobile is that fuel consumption is not the greatest cost associated with car ownership, the fixed costs of insurance, depreciation, and maintenance take up a good percentage of total ownership. Mileage also plays a role, as anyone who has tried to sell a high mileage car can attest, but that hits on the backend of ownership.

[addisonsteele]

01:22 PM on 03/08/2011

Living in the San Francisco Bay Area, I am surrounded by hybrids (I was once standing on the nearest corner, a four-way stop, and every direction had a Prius at the stop sign). Most of the people who drive them seem to drive more, primarily because they did not buy their hybrids to "save the planet," but to save themselves money and to have an opportunity to drive in the commute lanes.

[Mike Hussey]

03:54 AM on 03/08/2011

If the car has good fuel-efficient and perform well as per the buyer then the buyer tends to drives more. As this increase his pleasure to drive the cars.

[AKDavy]

07:01 PM on 03/07/2011

Fuel-efficient cars don't "make" anybody drive more, they "allow" people to drive more by increasing fuel efficiency and "encourage" them to drive more by removing the guilt factor.

It's like a friend once said about diet cookies: "They have HALF as many calories! You can eat TWICE AS MANY of them!!!