Saturday, April 21, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
the hybrid myth?
how environmental is a hybrid vehicle? ie, given today's technology, is a hybrid vehicle truly a better choice?
here is an editorial about the environmental costs of building a prius. the author does not provide citations for the claims he makes, but it does highlight the possibility that we cannot automatically assume that a car which consumes less gas is more environmental.
on another note, besides the environmental factor, the other argument for purchasing hybrid vehicles is that the amount of gas one saves. this is easier to analyse.
the following is based upon information taken from carsdirect.com
2007 Nissan Altima 2.5 S 4dr Sedan
price: $19144
mpg: 26/35 city/highway
2007 Nissan Altima Hybrid Base 4dr Sedan
price: $24046
mpg: 42/36 city/highway
here we use the nissan altima as our example. why not the prius? first, nissan does not actually build their own hybrid engines. they license the technology from toyota [citation], so we are discussing essentially the same technology. second, toyota does not make a non-hybrid version of the prius, so its hard to make a comparison with another car. on the other hand, the nissan altima base version comes in both regular and hybrid versions.
so, given the quotes we retrieved, the hybrid is more expensive by $4902. there are many factors that will make this number go up or down. some states have emission control charges. some states impose a sales tax. some states give "rebates" to purchasers in order to further an environmental agenda. due to the high demand for such vehicles, some buyers may have to pay above dealer cost. most people cannot afford to shell out the entire amount of the price of a car, and take out loans. just for reference, a $20,000 loan at 5.75% for 5 years will garner about $3000 of interest. in any case, we will not delve into all the possibilities, and just take the $4902 as the basis of our argument.
given today's prices (and let's take the most expensive prices of $3.50/gallon, currently in california), 26 miles of city driving on a regular altima will cost $3.50. 26 miles of city driving on a hybrid altima will cost $2.17. the difference, $0.0513. thus, it will take 95,500 miles of city driving in order to make up for the difference in cost. the difference in cost of highway driving is negligible. even assuming that the driver only drives in the city, that's about 7-8 years to make up that difference.
here is an editorial about the environmental costs of building a prius. the author does not provide citations for the claims he makes, but it does highlight the possibility that we cannot automatically assume that a car which consumes less gas is more environmental.
on another note, besides the environmental factor, the other argument for purchasing hybrid vehicles is that the amount of gas one saves. this is easier to analyse.
the following is based upon information taken from carsdirect.com
2007 Nissan Altima 2.5 S 4dr Sedan
price: $19144
mpg: 26/35 city/highway
2007 Nissan Altima Hybrid Base 4dr Sedan
price: $24046
mpg: 42/36 city/highway
here we use the nissan altima as our example. why not the prius? first, nissan does not actually build their own hybrid engines. they license the technology from toyota [citation], so we are discussing essentially the same technology. second, toyota does not make a non-hybrid version of the prius, so its hard to make a comparison with another car. on the other hand, the nissan altima base version comes in both regular and hybrid versions.
so, given the quotes we retrieved, the hybrid is more expensive by $4902. there are many factors that will make this number go up or down. some states have emission control charges. some states impose a sales tax. some states give "rebates" to purchasers in order to further an environmental agenda. due to the high demand for such vehicles, some buyers may have to pay above dealer cost. most people cannot afford to shell out the entire amount of the price of a car, and take out loans. just for reference, a $20,000 loan at 5.75% for 5 years will garner about $3000 of interest. in any case, we will not delve into all the possibilities, and just take the $4902 as the basis of our argument.
given today's prices (and let's take the most expensive prices of $3.50/gallon, currently in california), 26 miles of city driving on a regular altima will cost $3.50. 26 miles of city driving on a hybrid altima will cost $2.17. the difference, $0.0513. thus, it will take 95,500 miles of city driving in order to make up for the difference in cost. the difference in cost of highway driving is negligible. even assuming that the driver only drives in the city, that's about 7-8 years to make up that difference.
Monday, April 16, 2007
truly green?
i recently received the following evite to a milonga, which i've copied verbatim (with the exception of personal identification info). the event is meant to be "green" as in environmental, as 22 april is earth day (or something like it). i find the invitation to be lacking with respect to the presumed intention of the hosts. here's why. my comments are in red.
| a big green milonga welcoming tango beginners! |
| ||||||||||
applying for technical jobs
the resume
the website
the initial contact (most likely with hr)
the phone interview
the on site interview
the negotiations
the website
the initial contact (most likely with hr)
the phone interview
the on site interview
the negotiations
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