« previous next »
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: As hybrid cars gobble rare metals, shortage looms  (Read 1690 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline thundley4

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 40571
  • Reputation: +2224/-127
As hybrid cars gobble rare metals, shortage looms
« on: August 31, 2009, 12:33:51 PM »
Quote
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Prius hybrid automobile is popular for its fuel efficiency, but its electric motor and battery guzzle rare earth metals, a little-known class of elements found in a wide range of gadgets and consumer goods.
That makes Toyota's market-leading gasoline-electric hybrid car and other similar vehicles vulnerable to a supply crunch predicted by experts as China, the world's dominant rare earths producer, limits exports while global demand swells.1
Worldwide demand for rare earths, covering 15 entries on the periodic table of elements, is expected to exceed supply by some 40,000 tonnes annually in several years unless major new production sources are developed. One promising U.S. source is a rare earths mine slated to reopen in California by 2012.2
Among the rare earths that would be most affected in a shortage is neodymium, the key component of an alloy used to make the high-power, lightweight magnets for electric motors of hybrid cars, such as the Prius, Honda Insight and Ford Focus, as well as in generators for wind turbines.
Reuters via Yahoo

1.  Does anyone think that the US being beholden to China even more is better than depending on the Arabs for oil?
2. Good luck with getting the EPA to allow that mine to reopen, or the environmentalist for that matter.

I see nothing but bad things happening to the US economy under Lord Zero.
Logged

Offline JohnnyReb

  • In Memoriam
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 32063
  • Reputation: +1998/-134
Re: As hybrid cars gobble rare metals, shortage looms
« Reply #1 on: August 31, 2009, 01:13:41 PM »
Save your clunkers boys, the South shall ride again....uh...or somthing like that.

I saw that....wonder when you factor in all the oil for mining, electricity for smelting, manufacturing, etc....how much oil we DIDN'T save.
Logged
“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of ‘liberalism’, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.” - Norman Thomas, U.S. Socialist Party presidential candidate 1940, 1944 and 1948

"America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within."  Stalin

Offline NHSparky

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 24431
  • Reputation: +1280/-617
  • Where are you going? I was gonna make espresso!
Re: As hybrid cars gobble rare metals, shortage looms
« Reply #2 on: August 31, 2009, 01:21:19 PM »
If this is the mine in California I'm thinking of, it's a cerium mine.  My dad worked on a project there about 9-10 years ago.  Fascinating (and dangerous) stuff.
Logged
“Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the government take care of him better take a closer look at the American Indian.”  -Henry Ford

Offline docstew

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4741
  • Reputation: +282/-187
  • My Wife is awesome!
Re: As hybrid cars gobble rare metals, shortage looms
« Reply #3 on: August 31, 2009, 02:50:03 PM »
Quote from: JohnnyReb on August 31, 2009, 01:13:41 PM
Save your clunkers boys, the South shall ride again....uh...or somthing like that.

I saw that....wonder when you factor in all the oil for mining, electricity for smelting, manufacturing, etc....how much oil we DIDN'T save.

I saw a news article listing the entire carbon footprint for a Prius going from raw materials to 100k miles... the conclusion was the planet was better off if everyone drove Hummer H1's.
Logged

Offline AllosaursRus

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 11672
  • Reputation: +424/-293
  • Skip Tracing by Contract Only!
Re: As hybrid cars gobble rare metals, shortage looms
« Reply #4 on: August 31, 2009, 04:27:19 PM »
Quote from: docstew on August 31, 2009, 02:50:03 PM
I saw a news article listing the entire carbon footprint for a Prius going from raw materials to 100k miles... the conclusion was the planet was better off if everyone drove Hummer H1's.

Thje Greenies never take this into consideration at all! They think "I Dream of Jeanie" is real!
Logged
I'm the guy your mother warned you about!
 

Offline RightCoast

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3438
  • Reputation: +185/-24
  • Semper Fi means more than most will ever know
Re: As hybrid cars gobble rare metals, shortage looms
« Reply #5 on: August 31, 2009, 06:19:50 PM »
Quote from: docstew on August 31, 2009, 02:50:03 PM
I saw a news article listing the entire carbon footprint for a Prius going from raw materials to 100k miles... the conclusion was the planet was better off if everyone drove Hummer H1's.

I saw that - don't remember where.
Logged
nine eleven is a car
nine one one is an emergency service
September 11, 2001 was an attack
Never Forget, or Minimize.

Offline jinxmchue

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3841
  • Reputation: +114/-26
Re: As hybrid cars gobble rare metals, shortage looms
« Reply #6 on: September 01, 2009, 12:35:19 PM »
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
« previous next »