Alex Law of the Canadian Automotive Network offers food-for-thought regarding the cost per mile of operating a vehicle over the life of a vehicle. The article does not pay attention to air quality, sprawl, road construction and maintenance, accidents and other "externalities." http://www.auto123.com/en/info/news/news,v...rtid=59574&pg=2 Jeep TJ (Wrangler): $0.604 Chevrolet Tracker: $0.694 Toyota Echo: $0.703 Saturn Ion: $0.709 Hyundai Elantra: $0.723 Dodge SX2.0: $0.728 Toyota Corolla: $0.732 Chevrolet Cavalier: $0.757 Pontiac Sunfire: $0.758 Chevrolet Aveo: $0.765 Mazda Protegé: $0.772 Chevrolet S10: $0.779 Ford Focus: $0.0803 Hyundai Accent: $0.840 Kia Spectra: $0.864 Mitsubishi Lancer: $0.872 Suzuki Aerio: $0.888 Nissan Sentra: $0.962 Kia Rio: $0.964 Ford Ranger: $0.968
Interesting article, but I think there's some big flaws that aren't addressed. I question how they determine the various costs that go in to the figures. And how much of an advantage does a well established vehicle have over a new state of the art vehicle? Obviously more has gone into development of the state of the art vehicle, than, let's say a Jeep that's been around forever and ultimately changed very little over the years. In regards to energy used during the manufacturing process..etc, do they consider where the energy is coming from? Some power is much cleaner than other power, so it would be difficult to compare. I guess from a pure cost standpoint, the article may make sense, but from an environment standpoint, it is lacking quite a bit.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Maytrix @ Apr 19 2006, 09:06 AM) [snapback]242093[/snapback]</div> Indeed...it would be interesting to see a similar list, but with total emissions over the life of the car...
In these so-called energy usage studies, they content that the planning of the vehicle is a significant portion of the cost. So, for fair treatment we should add 100+ years of research and design on ICEs by thousands of automotive engineers. Given their analytical ability, imagine what these folks would do to the cost of a hydrogen car!
