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A free Prius in every driveway
JOHN LEBLANC FOR THE TORONTO STAR
Do the math: a free Prius for everyone would be beneficial in the long run.
Los Angeles
Of the 12 million barrels of oil the U.S. imports daily, the six million barrels it gets from OPEC members are the most geopolitically dubious. That oil from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is refined into about 314 million litres, or roughly one-fifth of its daily gas consumption of 1.5 billion litres, according to the Energy Information Administration.
The 2010 Toyota Prius is EPA-rated at 4.7 L/100 km (60 m.p.g), combined city and highway driving – a number that's really useful only for comparison's sake, as some drivers will get less and some will get more. Members of the press at an event I attended notched more than 3.4 L/100 km (84 m.p.g.) without too much trouble.
Now then, the U.S. Department of Energy budgetary request for fiscal 2010 is $65 billion (all figures U.S.), including nearly $40 billion from the National Economic Recovery Act. The 2010 Toyota Prius will probably come in around $23,000 when prices are announced later this spring. Since the U.S. federal cheque book is open, what if they took $46 billion and bought everybody Priuses? Would that help?
Why yes, yes it would.
By my calculations, $46 billion would buy about two million Priuses. Assuming they are used to replace cars that get 15.7 L/100 km (18 m.p.g.) and assuming an average driving year of 24,000 kilometres – and assuming the junkers are retired out of the fleet – these two million Priuses would save about 2,650 litres of gas per car, or 5.5 billion litres a year.
That's about 17 days worth of OPEC oil. Doesn't sound like much, does it? But what if they were to continue allocating $46 billion annually to the U.S. Department of Prius? In 10 years, the U.S. would be saving 532 billion litres a year, or 170 days' worth of OPEC oil. That'll give Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez insomnia like a case of Red Bull.
Other advantages would include a significant reduction in vehicle-related greenhouse gas emissions. Such a scheme wouldn't really hurt the U.S. balance of trade, either, since Toyota would have to subcontract Prius assembly to U.S facilities to meet demand.
Crazy? Really? I would like to hear of another plan that in 10 years and at a cost of $400 billion (probably high, since the U.S. would be buying in such bulk) could achieve such bankable savings in foreign oil, trade and carbon.
Public transportation? Please. Las Vegas showgirls could be hired as conductors and people still wouldn't take light rail. As for the objection that such a thought experiment constitutes wild, stark-staring collectivism, let's offer a free Prius to a few hundred thousand Texans and see if they decline out of free-market principle.
Ah, but I don't mean to bait that bear. I only mean to observe that the U.S. federal government often goes through an agonizing and inefficient accommodation of private enterprise when direct action would be cheaper and more effective. I also mean to note how remarkable the Toyota Prius is. Very few cars can claim the power to change the world. Prius can.
Let's just take a moment to kick a field goal in honour of this game changer. It created a segment, it changed minds, it validated a technology, it raised awareness. It united blue-collar workers and university professors in a brotherhood and sisterhood of thrift. It's cool. It's dorky. If everyone drove one, we could tell OPEC to kiss our behinds.
I'll take mine in red.
Dan Neil is the Pulitzer Prize-winning
automotive critic for the L.A. Times.
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