Hybrid Soccer Moms

I want to drive a hybrid vehicle.

I really, really do.

However. I have two small children (read: carseats), and neither my husband nor I are small people.  We also plan to have another child biologically, and perhaps adopting one or two after that. There's no world in wich a Prius fits our needs. In fact, with our transportation and cargo needs, we're looking at something in the small SUV or minivan range. I can't fit me, the husb and the girls as well as a week's worth of groceries into an economy car.

I'm not even going to be going into how unutterably impractical a SMART car would be for even a single Mama with one little one, much less my herd.

So today I want to talk a little bit about driving green with a family. Face it, some of us are just not going to fit into a Civic or a Prius. Either you're large people (take my best friend--she and her husband both are over six feet tall. And not just an inch or two, significantly.) in general, or you have a large number of people in your family. Heck, even with two kids, you've got to factor in carseats, then booster seats, then carpool for us Soccer Moms, carpool to the pool, carpool to the mall.

Come to think of it, us Soccer Moms have been green in our travels for a long tome--we OWN the carpool!

Carpooling is a great way to manage transportation resources. We've chosen to send our oldest daughter to an Elementary school that's in our district, but not our home school. As such, we have to provide our own transportation and give up our seat on the school bus. I don't mind driving Peyton to school, but I admit, I am concerned with the amount of gas I'll be burning every day. Burnt gas = exhaust = greenhouse gas emissions = bad juju. But, I do know of at least two other families in our area whose Kindergarteners will be attending the same school, so we're planning on setting up a carpool come August. Not only will I save at least a tank of gas a week (likely more!), there will be one car on the road for our combined families instead of three.

That's green on multiple levels!

But, like I said before, I REALLY want to drive a hybrid. Specifically, I want to drive THIS hybrid. That's right, kids. It's a hybrid minivan.

I'm in love!

Why has it taken so long for the minivan to go green? Why aren't there more hybrid minivans? Why isn't there specifically a Kia Sedona that's a hybrid? Why--wait. Why can't I buy one now?!

I got so excited when I saw the Toyota Sienna Hybrid. I want one. I'm ready to sell my Kia for one. It's paid off in July, I'm ready to roll that payment over into a brand-new hybrid minivan! But...I can't. Not yet. For now, the Toyota Sienna Hybrid is only available in Japan as the Toyota Estima.

Have no fear Moms and Dads. There are other options that ARE available at your local car dealership--just not minivans. Check out these two links for Hybrid SUV details:

HybridCars.com
US News Ranking and Reviews

I know. Some of you are thinking "Hybrid SUVs? Aren't they still gas guzzlers? What a waste of money!" But, to quote the article from hybridcars.com,

"It’s true that hybrid SUVs do not reach the level of fuel efficiency of smaller hybrids in terms of miles-per-gallon. Yet, miles-per-gallon is a non-linear and counter-intuitive form of measurement. An apparently small jump in fuel efficiency—for example, from 14 to 16 mpg—saves as much oil as increasing fuel economy from 35 to 50 mpg, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists."

Is it the same as going from an SUV to a small, economy hybrid? Likely not. But if you need the room for carseats and cargo and, well, people, going from a standard SUV to a hybrid SUV is still a green idea. It's not a big change, but those small changes we're all making add up. Recycling here, canvas grocery bags there, standard SUV traded in for a hybrid--it's one more change that can accomodate your growing family, but still help to respect our environment.

After all, even one small drop of rain raises the level of the sea!

Comments

[Only you can stop Global Warming]

If you want to reduced green house gas emissions don't buy a new car. Keep you old car. You need to consider how much green house gas is generated making a new car. One car will consume well over 1000 lb of coal in the manufacturing of the car. This will produce over 3000 lb of CO2.

[Amber]

That's all well and good, but when old cars become nonfunctional and public transportation is not a viable option (carseats do not install well on a bus), then the old vehicle must be replaced with another vehicle.

At which time the gas emitted by making a new car is somewhat moot, as that car already exists on a car lot. So maybe it's a bad idea to get on a waiting list for a new car, which would cause more gasses to be produced, but that doesn't make new cars in general terrible ideas.

I am a fan of purchasing used cars when doing so causes a net gain for both the people buying the car and the environment. But at the end of the day, buying a new car that already exists on a car lot that is both fuel efficient and burns cleaner is a better idea than buying a car that already exists on a car lot that is less fuel efficient and does not burn clean.

I suppose you could also argue that if we stopped buying new cars, they would stop producing them, but that's a limited solution. Cars die. They're not infinitely useful. Parts wear out and parts rust out and parts flat out break. Systems degrade in solidity and what was, as a new vehicle, a clean burning machine can erode into a solid emissions producer. New cars will be produced, but at least they're being produced with less of an impact on the environment (across the lifetime of the vehicle) than they were previously.

[Kim]

Here is another good resource for information about hybrid suvs - http://www.hybridsuv.com

[Sukhdeep]

I've had an SUV for a long time, a Suburban, and I love it for driving the kids around, it definitely feels like a tank, but like it says here: http://bit.ly/lJrt1c, there's no way I can afford to keep paying the crazy gas prices and the "auto insurance on this vehicle, it's terrible for the environment and I'm going broke!