Abstract
Hybrids are seen as a potential solution to urban traffic pollution and energy consumption; however studies show how pollution economic appraisal is one order of magnitude lower than fuel cost putting all the burden of the economic success the hybrid capability of reducing fuel consumption.Two Honda Civic Hybrid of the Italian Ministry of Environment fleet were constantly monitored while driven one each by the calmest and by the most aggressive of the Ministry drivers to assess driver effects on air pollutant emissions.Measurements have shown how the aggressive driver emits 10 times more VOC, and 4 times more CO and NOx than the calm driver while consuming 35% more fuel. In the economic appraisal over the expected 14 years vehicle life however the aggressive driver costs 16 300 € while the aggressive one 22 500 € only 38% more. This is due to the extremely low cost of emissions (excluding CO2) which is 160 € for the calm driver and 610 € for the aggressive one for the entire life of the vehicle.Unless pollutants are monetized according to the position where they are “left” in the atmosphere there is no way emission differences between cars and drivers can be reflected in any economic appraisal.
Highlights
Hybrid cars are widely seen as a potential solution to urban traffic pollution and energy consumption; previous studies, [1] and [2], have shown how pollution economic appraisal is one order of magnitude lower than fuel cost putting all the burden of the economic success of the hybrid on its capability of reducing fuel consumption
Differences on the other emissions are even more pronounced 4 times for CO and NOx and 10 times for VOC. All these differences in emissions and consumptions do not reflect in the average speed which is even slightly higher in average for the calm driver than for the aggressive one
Previous studies had shown how internalizing the external costs of vehicle-pollution was not enough to justify the extra cost of an hybrid vehicle mostly because the main social cost is due to the monetization of CO2
Summary
Hybrid cars are widely seen as a potential solution to urban traffic pollution and energy consumption; previous studies, [1] and [2], have shown how pollution economic appraisal is one order of magnitude lower than fuel cost putting all the burden of the economic success of the hybrid on its capability of reducing fuel consumption. This effect is even greater if carbon dioxide reduction is considered as an effect of fuel consumption reduction rather than among the other air pollutants (i.e. nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, particulate matters and volatile organic compounds). New tools allow to precisely geo-reference the emissions produced, data used in this paper are all geo-referenced, and it would be interesting doing again the economic appraisal should the monetary values of each pollutant be made location dependent
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