"How do Diesels Compare to Hybrids?"

Toyota Open Road Blog published an interested article on how diesels compare to Hybrids, which you can read below:

"If you follow what’s happening in the automotive scene, you probably know that Volkswagen is bringing the latest in what it calls "clean diesels" to its U.S. dealerships for 2009. You may also know that several publications have lauded the ’09 VW Jetta diesel for its fuel economy.

So we thought it might be interesting to take a look at the Jetta and its numbers to see how they compare to those of hybrids. Using numbers from a terrific site by the federal government’s Environmental Protection Agency, here’s what we found.

We found that the EPA rates the Jetta at a combined mpg figure of 34. Based on that, the EPA calculates that the Jetta’s annual fuel cost would be $1,746, that it would use 11.6 barrels of petroleum per year and that its carbon-footprint number – i.e., tons of CO2 emitted per year – would be 6.2.

Great, but what does that mean? To find out, we dug up some comparative numbers. We checked out the EPA’s figures for the Honda Civic Hybrid, the Chevy Tahoe hybrid, the Ford Escape hybrid, the Prius and the Camry Hybrid.

What we found is that according to the EPA, the Jetta diesel has a larger carbon footprint than any of the vehicles we looked at, except for the Chevy Tahoe hybrid. Here’s how they stacked up:

The Civic Hybrid turned in an EPA rating of 42/combined and its annual fuel costs are listed as $1,328. The EPA says it will burn 8.2 barrels of petroleum annually and that its carbon-footprint number is 4.4.

Chevy’s Tahoe hybrid is, like the Honda hybrid, what’s called a mild hybrid. What that means, in short form, is that it delivers some, but not all, of the goodness of which full hybrids are capable. (For a discussion of hybrid families and types, click here.) And that’s born out in the numbers. The Tahoe hybrid is rated at 21 mpg/combined and an annual fuel cost of $2,656, 16.3 barrels of petroleum per year and a carbon-footprint number of 8.7.

Ford’s Escape hybrid, meanwhile, is rated at 32 mpg/combined, an annual fuel cost of $1,747, 10.7 barrels of petroleum annually and a carbon-footprint number of 5.7

The Prius leads the league in mpg numbers at 46/combined. The EPA calculates its annual fuel cost at $1,211, barrels of petroleum used at 7.4 and its carbon footprint at 4.0 – another league-leading number.

Our Camry Hybrid doesn’t quite match those numbers but still does pretty well. Its mpg is rated at 34/combined and an annual fuel cost of $1,641. The EPA calculates that it will burn 10.1 barrels of fuel per year with a carbon-footprint number of 5.4.

You can make of these numbers what you will – we’d remind you that they’re the federal government’s, not ours. What we make of them is that manufacturers are working hard on economy, efficiency and a reduced carbon footprint, and that’s terrific. But we also see that the term "clean diesel" is relative, and that the technology appears to use more fuel, at greater cost, than hybrid technology does, and appears to leave a larger carbon footprint.

That said, we certainly understand that there are situations in which diesel is the fuel of choice. For that reason, we offer, in markets outside the U.S., diesels in a number of our vehicles. For now, though, at least in the U.S., diesel carries two premiums about which buyers apparently remain wary - the additional cost of the diesel powertrain over a standard powertrain and the elevated cost of diesel fuel.

The lesson we take from this is that our Hybrid Synergy Drive continues to look like a pretty good way to go. - Ron Kirkpatrick, Corporate Communications"

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