Research about the carbon footprint of a Prius versus a gas Corolla

Per your request I just performed an exhaustive analysis of my footprints in my Prius with my Mass Spectrometer and they contain 18.5% Carbon.
Hope this helps.

 

I'm thinking that won't be very helpful from schja01, and somewhat unfortunate as the first reply to John Norland's first post.

There will be greater experts here who hopefully can add to the research.

My non-scientific opinion (which also is contrary to the request "don’t respond with your personal thoughts or opinions") is that the actual car itself comparison Prius Prime vs. Corolla will be similar. The difference will be the battery in the Prime, and whether the environmental impact from it offsets the environmental impact from the production of 3000 extra gallons for the Corolla per 100K miles traveled.

I would say 250K miles from a Toyota is not an unreasonable guess, but I don't know if there are any studies saying 60% will make it to that mileage. Some of the variables are outside of Toyota's control also, such as a crash that totals the car.

 

There are a number of blogs/posts/videos that touch on this subject. While numbers can vary they agree that due to the batteries the Prius has a deficit compared to the Carolla leaving the dealer's lot. After that, operationally the Prius will be cleaner than the Carolla.

I consider a PragerU Youtube video on this subject propaganda because of the way it plays with numbers. I portrays the construction deficit as 25.000 lbs for an EV vs 16,000 lbs for a gas car. (This translates to a 4.5 ton difference.) But then the EV after about 6 years is now cleaner overall by 4 tons. The Union of Concerned Scientists claim that on average an EV/PHEV breaks even on the total emissions at about 2 years.

 

First, welcome to Prius Chat !

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Having said that, I'm currently trying to determine if this community is being trolled, or not.

OP, why don't YOU do your own due diligence first, then please post up all your info & any links you have to that data. At that point you'll have real skin in the game, Prius Chat forum members might be more willing to spend time crunching this data.


Rob43

 

there is no science on this particular comparison, and most carbon 'science' is biased

 

My cousin's hairdresser thinks the atomic number should be six and a half.

 

What your looking for is called Life Cycle Assessment. However, I don't think you find exactly what you want. The closest is from Toyota (because they have both the direct data and interest in studying a hybrid vs others). Specifically:
Lifecycle Environmental actions for our next generation vehicles | Challenge 2: Life Cycle Zero CO2 Emissions | Toyota Environmental Challenge2050 | ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) Activities | Sustainability | Toyota Motor Corporation Official Global Website

Ignore the Mirai and FCV columns (this is from their Mirai LCA)
GV = Gas vehicle (roughly close to a Corolla)
HV = Hybrid vehicle (roughly close to a Prius)

There is this Master's Thesis LCA of a Prius specifically, but they resort to generic "gas vs hybrid" when they actually do a comparison:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/cacb/072dc06098a7612a5770213fb18f30a7cf45.pdf


There is also this German study that does a much more comprehensive comparison of (generic) vehicles in different ranges: Erste Studie zur Ökobilanz unserer Autos: Elektro, Erdgas, Benzin & Diesel| ADAC

The most relevant graph to your question is probably this one

Benzin (petrol) = Closest to a Corolla
Hybrid = Closest to a Prius
Plug-in-hybrid (Strommix) = Closest to a Prius Prime

I hope that helps and let me know if anything else needs explained.

Edit: I completely forgot this group/study, but this is much more what you want:
AUTOMOTIVE SCIENCE GROUP

The downside is that they report their results as a 0-100 index rather than the actual results, but it includes social, economic and environmental (carbon footprint) of specific vehicles. For 2019, I see the Prius/Prius Prime, but not the Corolla. However, you can probably choose a "similar to Corolla" sedan.

ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE RATING (EPR) (Higher value is better)
EPR = 100, 2019 Prius Prime: 2019 TOYOTA PRIUS PRIME - Automotive Science Group
EPR = 78, 2019 Honda Insight: 2019 HONDA INSIGHT - Automotive Science Group
EPR = 77, 2019 Prius Eco: 2019 PRIUS ECO - Automotive Science Group
EPR = 61, 2019 Honda Fit: 2019 HONDA FIT - Automotive Science Group

 

Just set each car on fire and weigh the ashes.

 

Now that there's a Corolla hybrid, will that take sales away from the Prius? How do the Prius liftback and Corolla hybrid compare?

 

prius is much roomier and better mpg's. but if you want a small sedan...

 

I looked at the corolla first because it has the newer version of safety sense that keeps the car centered in its lane, unlike the TSS-P in the Prime, which has lane keep assist which mostly just beeps at you, or at best bounces you around in your lane.

The Corolla Hybrid only comes in LE trim and doesn't have heated seats. As someone with chronic back problems and a long commute, that was a deal breaker. The Corolla is cheaper, but the Prime comes with about $9,000 rebates for me which actually makes it cheaper. The Prime looks nicer to me, though Corolla is better looking than a regular gen 4 Prius to me.

The articles I've read about why they made the corolla hybrid, which is basically the same drivetrain as a prius say that it has to do with the stigma surrounding the Prius. Specifically it mentioned that non-caucasian people are more likely to go for the Corolla hybrid than a prus.

MPGs are really close.53/52 city/highway for the Corolla. I don't know about roominess (specs say 1" more legroom in the Prime, almost the same amount of hip room and shoulder room, with Corolla technically being a tiny insignificant amount bigger in hip room). I know the Prime is really lacking in the cargo area, unless I lower the seats, which is not practical day to day.

 

I read a test report on the hybrid Corolla in Car and Driver. They said the gas mileage was amazing (same drivetrain as the Prius) but the acceleration was anemic compared to the gas powered Corolla. They also compared it to the new Honda Insight. The Insight performed better (handling, braking, power), but didn't deliver on economy and ride comfort.

Yeah, why buy a Corolla when the Prime costs less with the tax credit, etc., and is a better car.

 

There was this study,posted by Bob Wilson (bwilson4web) on another thread:
Thread repository for ALL non-PriusChat reviews of the 2017 Prius Prime | Page 15 | PriusChat

 

There was a thread with a nice video showing the comparison of lifecycle carbon footprints on various models of cars including BEVs like Tesla, Hybrids like Prius, and regular ICE cars. Let me see if I can find it.