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Hi there everyone, I hope your Memorial Day was a good one (and an efficient one, as we had suggested here on HybridBlog). I’ve got a couple of interesting tidbits for you this month, including a little chat on an issue that more than a few DCN members have inquired about: hybrids and electromagnetic fields (EMFs). So, once again, let’s get to it.
Take care,
Scott Nathanson
UCS National Field Organizer &
HybridCenter.org Administrator
In this issue:
I’ve gotten more than a few questions over the years about electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and hybrids. I’m happy to say that I was able to chat with our own Senior Engineer and former auto industry consultant Spencer Quong on the subject. Here’s our Q&A:
SN: So, Spencer, what exactly are electromagnetic fields?
SQ: EMFs are invisible forces generated by electric charges.
SN: Okay, that’s pretty general. Can you give me some more specific examples?
SQ: It’s a general answer because EMFs are found wherever you find electricity. Televisions, power lines, cell phones, electric motors, and escalators are examples of products that generate EMFs. These fields also occur naturally, in static electricity on a sweater, for example, or in the clouds before a thunderstorm.
 SN: That is general. Given that, is this something I should be generally concerned about in my life?
SQ: The World Health Organization concluded in a report last year that “current evidence does not confirm the existence of any health consequences from exposure to low level electromagnetic fields. However, some gaps in knowledge about biological effects exist and need further research.” You’ll have to judge for yourself as to whether that’s a concern to you, but that’s the latest evidence.
SN: Alright, as you know, I actually have a more specific issue I’d like to talk about, being that I’m a Prius owner. How much EMFs do hybrid and electric vehicles emit? I would think it would be much higher than your average car.
SQ: That’s where you’d be surprised. A 1999 Department of Transportation study found that the low frequency EMFs in electric vehicles are nearly the same as those in conventional vehicles and a thousand times below the minimum level in existing European Union standards—we don’t have any standards on this in the United States.
SN: Uh, I don’t get it. How can hybrid and electric vehicles have the same levels of EMF as gasoline cars? Don't they use a lot of electricity?
SQ: Yes, hybrid vehicles use electricity to turn the wheels, however, the wiring the electricity passes through is shielded and is usually outside the passenger compartment. Furthermore, almost all of the EMFs generated in a hybrid vehicle are static and do not vibrate. It’s the vibrating EMFs that have been the focus of most health concerns. So, you have twice the protection: low levels of EMFs and shielding.
SN: So, at the end of the day, the health benefits of a hybrid outweigh the risks.
SQ: Indeed, given the scientific evidence and the engineering of hybrid vehicles, the benefits of hybrid technology—both to significantly reduce smog-forming and global warming pollution and benefit public health—far outweigh any possible risks.
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Great stuff, Spencer, thanks. Spencer also is also writing up a piece that goes into more detail on the EMF and hybrid issue, as well as more on how EMFs are actually tracked. It should be up in our Hybrid Watchdog section later this week, so go check it out.
 Arizona hybrid HOV perk tapped out: It’s a classic “chicken or egg” argument. Due to increased sales and registrations of hybrid vehicles in the state, Arizona’s pilot High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) perk project has already been tapped out. The perk allowed for 10,000 special hybrid license plates to be dispersed for HOV lane use with only one occupant in the vehicle. Drivers may get a crack at applying for a plate in the future, but federal and state officials first will study the program's impact on freeways. Drivers can transfer their plates to a new car as long as it is also eligible for the program. Given one local Toyota dealer noted, “No one's ever come to me saying, I need a hybrid because of the HOV lane” it will be interesting to see if hybrid sales change now that the program has been maxed out. For more on this, head to the Hybrid News Center.
- Honda finally sees “Fit” to go with compact hybrid: Honda announced that it has given the green light to the development and production of its Fit compact car into a hybrid. Given that none of the high-selling sub-compact cars (such as the Nissan Versa, Toyota Yaris, or the Fit) currently get a 40 mpg fuel economy rating, a hybrid Fit may be a very nice addition. Especially if Honda can keep to its target of bringing cost premiums on hybrids down under the $2,000 mark. Nissan, meanwhile, is pursuing fully electric vehicles as the future of the market, looking to bring an electric vehicle to Japan and the United States by 2010. Both Nissan and German automakers Daimler and BMW believe that lithium ion batteries will be the future sooner rather than later. Toyota, meanwhile, is gearing up for a major expansion of its current hybrid technologies by building a third hybrid battery plant in Japan. More on these and other upcoming hybrid models at the Hybrid News Center.
• Real world tests for hybrid batteries: The reliability of hybrid batteries has always been a question, as well as their potential waste and potential replacement expense. While we have heard that automaker’s in-house testing shows the reliability of these batteries, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity department has conducted accelerated reliability tests on hybrids to bring some real-world information to light. At the end of 160,000 miles, hybrids are tested for fuel efficiency and remaining battery pack capacity. This would be roughly equivalent to a normal driver driving 16,000 miles a year for 10 years. Overall, the batteries with full data faired pretty well—especially noting that these tests were for very heavy use vehicles. The end-of-life battery tests were performed on the first-generation 2002 Toyota Prius, 2001 Honda Insight and 2003 Civic Hybrid, not current models. Two examples of each model were tested: The Insight hybrids drove away with 85 percent battery life, the Civics had 68 percent life and the Prius models had 39 percent. You can find out more about these tests and other models tested at our Hybrid News Center.
 Well, you can’t say we didn’t warn ‘em. An article from MSNBC shows what we thought all along about American’s appetite for the Yukon and Tahoe SUVS—there ain’t much there. Although the Tahoe and Yukon hybrids are still new, early sales figures suggest Americans are not buying them in large numbers the same way they are stampeding toward smaller, fuel-sipping cars, according to Jesse Toprak, executive director of industry analysis for Edmunds.com.
Toprak notes the reasons for this dour early indicator are the vehicle’s price (more than $50k—a $7,000-10,000 premium over their conventional versions) and the “stigma” of driving a large SUV. Both of these rationales have some merit. Torpak goes on to highlight what should have been a potential warning sign for General Motors—the Toyota Highlander Hybrid. The Highlander costs about $7,000 more than the conventional Highlander, and has not been the sales champ that the Camry Hybrid and Prius have been. Indeed, Toyota has had to create very generous incentives for the Highlander Hybrid to get them moving off the showroom floor.
Here’s how Torpak sums up his hybrid market philosophy in light of these sobering stats:
“We are learning that when you sell a hybrid version of a vehicle to the mass market it needs to make sense on paper. The segment of people who really care about the environment, that’s a small market, and to get significant sales you really have to go after the middle-class family. That segment will care most of all about how much money they can save, and that’s why GM needs to lower the price of these SUVs to more realistic levels.”
It’s an interesting take, especially the focus on the middle-class family, although I think that the combination of high-gas prices and increasing environmental consciousness has actually expanded this market far more than Torpak believes. His conclusion about merely needing to reduce the price of the Tahoe/Yukon Hybrids to more realistic levels, however, is in my opinion, dead wrong.
 The lesson here is that people are willing to pay for increased fuel economy, but those increases must be substantial in order to justify the cost. Muscle hybrids like the Tahoe and Yukon don’t make the cut, much like their defunct brother, the Accord Hybrid. This is why the Highlander Hybrid has had trouble, and why Toyota has decided to can the whole “performance hybrid” terminology from its marketing tactics. On the flip side, this is why we quickly and easily got nearly 20,000 people to say they wanted to see a 35 mile per gallon hybrid minivan such as the Toyota Estima Hybrid, now available in Japan, brought here to America.
Whether it’s because of concerns about global warming or about fuel prices, people are looking to max out MPGs with their vehicle options. That said, there will always be a market, and a substantial one, for larger, seven-passenger vehicles. The automakers thought that the market for these vehicles would be just like they’ve always been—power first with efficiency as an afterthought. In that, they have completely misread this growing market, and an opportunity to keep people looking at larger vehicles as an option rather than turning only to downsizing. While that is not a bad deal for the environment, given the higher overall profit-margin automakers get from the larger vehicles, this is an extremely costly misread for them.
It seems to me that at this point, automakers are almost afraid to see what might happen if they bring a truly fuel-efficient seven-passenger vehicle to America. If it ended up being a “sales home run” as Toyota sales executives think the Estima Hybrid would be here, would that so substantially upset conventional thinking on both the consumer desires and technological feasibility of fuel efficient larger vehicles that it might inspire a complete rethinking of future product lines? It might. And if it does, all I can say is the sooner the better.
I’ve got my money on the table, and I know a lot of others do as well. Much like Toyota and the Prius, whoever gets to the high-mileage large vehicle market first certainly stands to gain a huge market edge. But we’re all still waiting to see who has the courage to be first—and we’ve been waiting for far too long.
Who’s Got Hybrids Now?
Arizona’s cap on special license plates made me think that we have a bunch of “Who’s Got Hybrids?” members that have sent in photos of the fun ways they have created vanity plates. Here are some of my faves:
 David Bassage in Walton West Virginia has his Gen. 2 Prius tagged “NVIROCAR” —he’s also gotten 66mpg out of a tank before, which leaves me green—with envy!
 Here are Jim Partin of Bedford, New Hampshire and his fellow Insight owner David Haynes. Their plate’s lean more toward the oil security side of the argument, and are a bit more, er, frank than David’s. Funny, but frank.
 Mary Laiuppa of San Diego, California has been “HYBRDZD” in her black Gen. 2 Prius. She loves her emissions reduction and is never going back.
 Jim Mackenzie in Albuquerque, NM says it all with his Gen. 2 Prius “LESSCO2.” He’s gotten up to 52 mpg, and has also been impressed by how quiet it is, and, from a friend’s unfortunate example, how safe it is, too.
 Here’s a fun Prius Gen. 2 one from Evan Fusco of Nixa, Missouri. “TOGOB4” is the actual meaning of the Latin word “prius.” It also makes my Star Trek nerd side come to the fore, thinking of “boldly going” with Bill Shatner. Some may say that’s not a good thing, though, most notably, my wife…
There are a ton of other fun vanity plates, bumper stickers, and funny quotes among our Who’s Got brood. So go check them out yourself for a little fun and a lot of learning. And if you own a hybrid, or know someone who does, please ask them to join our “Who’s Got Hybrids?” family here.
That’s it for this month, everyone. Have a great June and I’ll talk to you all again right before Independence Day.
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