Full Title: Frontier battery development for hybrid vehicles
Author(s): Heather Lewis, Haram Park, Maion Paolini
Publisher(s): Chemistry Central Journal
Publication Date: April 1, 2012
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Results: The quantitative benefit-cost analysis shows that, taking account of all costs for the life of the vehicle, hybrid cars are in fact more expensive than gasoline-powered vehicles; however, after five years, HEVs will break even with gasoline cars.
Conclusions: Our results show that it is likely that after 5 years, using hybrid vehicles should be cheaper in effect and yield a positive net benefit to society. There are a number of externalities that could significantly impact the total social cost of the car. These externalities can be divided into four categories: environmental, industrial, R&D and political. Despite short-term implications and hurdles, increased HEV usage forecasts a generally favorable long- term net benefit to society. Most notably, increasing HEV usage could decrease greenhouse gas emissions, while also decreasing U.S. dependence on foreign oil.