Technical Paper
An Environmental-Economic Evaluation of Hybrid Electric and Other Advanced Vehicles
2001-11-12
2001-01-3738
Hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) and other advanced propulsion technologies offer greater fuel economy and lower pollutant and tailpipe emissions. Some experts regard the HEV technology as a practical, attractive solution to social concerns about fuel economy (and related fossil fuel conservation) and vehicle emissions. [Maples 98] The technology is practical; however, an HEV is more expensive to produce than a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE). In a world of limited resources and many petroleum users and emissions sources, the policy question is whether the best use of resources is to build HEV, to improve the fuel economy and lower emissions from other sources, or to devote the resources to other environmental projects. We compare the second generation (designed for the United States) Toyota Prius, to the conventional internal combustion engine Toyota Corolla.