It got me thinking: would the total cost of ownership of the Toyota Prius (The only hybrid car in the Philippines) be significantly cheaper than buying a compact sedan or hatchback?

So I did a little bit of research and my findings were surprising!

First, I looked for a resource where I can find and compare the fuel economy of different cars and came upon www.FuelEconomy.gov. It was a website maintained by the US Department of Energy, the Office of Transportation & Air Quality, and the US Environmental Protection Agency, so I guessed that was credible enough.

The figures were all in miles and gallons and dollars and so forth, so I took the data and converted it into kilometers and liters and Philippine Pesos so that it would be more readily understandable.

At first glance, the Prius saves a ton of money in annual fuel costs!

Based on www.fueleconomy.gov Comparison Data
*P55 per liter
**24,000 km per year
Honda Prices as of Jan 10, 2012
Toyota Prices as of writing (Feb. 1, 2012)

However, actually buying a Prius was a completely different story. Costing around 3x a compact car liek the Yaris, the Prius is quite expensive. About half of the cost of a Prius goes to import duties, excise taxes, and value-added tax (VAT).

All things being equal, if you were thinking of savings by fuel economy, you’re better off with the Toyota Yaris with its low price tag and low fuel consumption. Even if the price of the Prius was halved, it would take 10 years to make it a cheaper option, and you’d only save P30,000 compared to the Yaris! (See table below)

However, if you want something the size of a Prius, getting a Honda Civic, despite being more expensive (naturally) than a compact car is still much, much cheaper than the total cost of owning a Prius, and only slightly more expensive than getting a Yaris.

In conclusion, it is not advisable to get a Toyota Prius from a financial perspective. It’s too expensive to buy, and the fuel savings doesn’t compensate for it. However, if you’re looking to be different (I wouldn’t say popular; the form factor of the Prius doesn’t exactly draw in the ladies) or being green helps you sleep better at night, then the Prius might be the only option in the market today.

UPDATE: A week ago, The Inquirer reported that the newer, funkier, more compact Prius is also cheaper! At P1.475M, it still won’t beat the Yaris or even the Civic in total cost of ownership, but NOW you’d be popular with its funky new look! (via Apany)

For Recycling

I have this jar at home. It was an old jar that used to contain choco flakes from Baguio, which I repurposed as a container for old, spent batteries, and I labeled it with black cloth tape and marked with correction fluid.

After a couple of months of collecting AA and AAA alkaline batteries, I was quite surprised to see how many batteries our house actually consumed! All the old batteries from clocks, remote controls, flashlights, you name it, goes straight into the jar.

Yesterday, with the jar being about 4/5 full, I decided to bring the jar with me to the mall. In SM Megamall, and most other SM malls as far as I know, they have a Nokia-sponsored box where you can drop your old cellphones, chargers, and batteries in. After that, the contents are sent to the proper disposal channels.

Nokia: We Recycle

On the downside, my research has led me to fact that, while alkaline batteries still contain small amounts of mercury despite the ban of its use in household batteries, it is uncertain whether certain “recycling centers” actually segregate alkaline batteries for recovery of its precious metals, or if they just throw it out in landfills anyway, which sort of defeats the purpose of my dropping off of batteries. Dropping old lithium-ion batteries in would be better, since they have higher recyclable content. But since the lifespan of laptop batteries usually last at least 1 year, there may not be much of those lying around your house.

With any luck, Nokia would be true their tagline, “Drop your old phone, battery or charger here for recycling and we’ll take care of the rest.” If you need to find the dropbox, head on over to the ground floor of Podium or beside the information counter in CyberZone SM Megamall.

If you found this information useful, buy me a coffee.

Earlier, the E-Jeepneys were rolled out onto the streets of Makati, Baguio, and Bacolod, but was prevented from serving as mass transit vehicles by red tape in the Department of Transport and Communication (DOTC) as the guidelines and regulations came only last April 2008. And after that, it was only now that the Land Transportation Office has approved the guidelines, rules, and regulations on registering and issuing license plates for these e-jeeps, and hopefully we too may soon be able to eco-commute via these e-Jeepneys.

Here is the article from the Philippine Daily Inquirer last March 10:

E-Jeeps Now Available Commercially, Set To Invade Metro Streets by Marlon Ramos

The electric-powered passenger jeeps are now available for commercial use.

The Land Transportation Office (LTO) has finally agreed to issue plate numbers to the e-jeepneys which can now be sold to interested public transport cooperatives and jeepney operators, Yvonne Palomar-Castro, the project director of Green Renewable Independent Power Producer Inc. (GRIPP), said yesterday.

She added that the development and production of the vehicles were primarily funded by GRIPP and the Dutch group Stitching Doen as part of their “Climate-Friendly Cities” project.

The LTO decided to allow the e-jeeps to operate commercially after GRIPP and Stitching Doen were able to assemble the vehicles locally with the help of Philippine Utility Vehicles, Inc. (PhUV), a local group of car parts manufacturers.

“With the issuance of the LTO license plaes, we assure the road-worthiness and safety of e-jeeps for commercial use, ” Castro said at a press briefing on the project in Taguig City.

“All of us would surely benefit from this project as it would answer our need for mass transport which uses a clean and renewable source of energy,” she added.

Powered by an electric motor with 12 six-volt lead acid batteries, an e-jeep can carry 14 passengers and run 40 to 60 kilometers per hour.

Priced at P625,000, the electric-powered jeepneys are cheaper than diesel-fed ones which now cost at least P700,000, according to Ferdinand Raquelsantos, PhUV president.

(Approx. P50 = $1 as of this writing. P625,000 = $12,500; P700,000 = $14,000)

GRIPP Official Website