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The Prius is an ecological nightmare that has already happened or is going to happen - depending on how you want to look at it.
#1)The upfront carbon footpint to manufacture one of these beasts is high, even compared to a Chevy Tahoe ...
#2) Their nickel metal hydride (NiMh) batteries are a huge hazewaste problem waiting to happen. They can't be recycled. Their heavy metals are toxic to the landfills. The burden of replacing them will fall to the 2nd or 3rd owner (further down on the economic ladder) who will be least likely of all to be able to afford the $7000 replacement cost of the batteries. Will these 2nd and 3rd generation owners simply continue to drive them once the cells begin to fail? Thus furthering the negative dependency on the gasoline engine (to take up the slack)....and further reducing the efficiencies of regenerative breaking.
IMO they represent one of the greatest environment ticking time bombs of all time....
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