US Hybrid Electric Vehicles Have Saved Nearly 5.5M Barrels of Fuel

That's great. But how many barrels of fuel do we use in a day? That number is for the past 8 years, but I could have sworn we used more than that in a day.

— investor27 (View Profile)

Posted on 6/22/2007 3:16:29 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

In 2005 we were using 21 million barrels at the time. And with an estimated 25% annual increase then, we could be using more than the 55 million number today.

Sorry. I couldn't find the edit button to add this information, which I found out after posting the OP.

— investor27 (View Profile)

Posted on 6/22/2007 3:20:00 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Well, I hate to be this way, but really 5.5 million BBL is not all that much. In the United States we produce about that domestically in a day. so we save a day in 7 years. There is a long way to go.

Incidentally, NREL is very neat. I pass it on my way to school everyday- my university is maybe half mile away and many professors there also work at NREL.

— cdoke (View Profile)

Posted on 6/22/2007 3:26:37 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

nice job to hybrids - but it's true, 5.5 million barrels isn't a lot in today's world

— Monk (View Profile)

Posted on 6/22/2007 5:15:29 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Smoke and mirrrors! What's the cost of eventually having to replace the battery pack and how do you account for the fact that batteries represent considerable excess weight to lug around. Hybrids can be geared to give acceptable acceleration on a full charge but they don't have the endurance for sustained agressive driving in the mountains for example. I'll take a diesel any time.

— EnnNorak (View Profile)

Posted on 6/22/2007 11:29:15 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

I wonder how many BILLIONS of barrels have been saved by diesels over gas engines?

once the battery packs are shot and used Prius' are a dime a dozen, i'd like to pick one up, rip that Hybrid Drive system out and put a VW 2.0 TDI into that ultra-light, aerodynamic body.

Compared to the stock vehicle, it would be much lighter, twice as fast, and use less fuel! :)

— DieselRules (View Profile)

Posted on 6/23/2007 2:14:05 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

230million gallons / 42 = 5.5million barrels. Problem is only 50% of each barrel imported is used for gasoline, so the real savings is 11 million barrels.

Anyway, using the 5.5 figure over 8 years that's 675,000 barrels a year / 500,000 hybrids in North America, which is about 1.3 barrels of oil per year that each hybrid saved.

EPA tests Prius at 6 barrels of oil per year, so an equivalent gas would be 7.3 barrels. Compare that to the Jetta TDI that wastes 10 barrels a year.

The real question is how much more oil did diesels needlessly waste over the last 8 years because their owners are cheap, and how much more smog did they emit?

Diesels are just hype if you take the time to dig through the crap.

— huu76 (View Profile)

Posted on 6/23/2007 11:53:30 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

The percentage of the total vehicle fleet that use hybrid powertrains is miniscule, however, each one saves its OWNER a significant amount of gasoline. 1.3 barrels of oil per vehicle owner IS a huge impact on a per-vehicle basis. As the gas guzzlers slowly get retired from the fleet, we can only hope that there are many more hybrid options to replace them.

Diesel is not a "better" technology, it's a different approach to improved fuel efficiency. We need to support both technologies, because each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Drivers deserve the choice.

Let's keep pushing for more efficiency and save even more -- US voters, please write your congressmen and ask him to support improved fuel economy regulation.

EnnNorak, continue driving whatever you drive, and watch Exxon laugh all the way to the bank. You should be thanking those drivers who are investing in hybrids -- they're funding the development of powertrains that will be even better than anything we have today. FYI, batteries can be recycled. You do that, don't you?

— moto (View Profile)

Posted on 6/24/2007 5:31:44 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: -1   

hey as long as were saving something i cant complain if its only a drop of gas were saving a day something is better than nothing

— bwee (View Profile)

Posted on 6/25/2007 4:02:08 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1