Mathematically they're equivalent, but the feelings could not be further apart.
this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2023
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Motorcycle emissions standards are incredibly lax by today's standards when compared to cars. That Prius just might be releasing less toxic substances than your motorcycle - while being able to cart around more people and stuff.
That Prius, just by being manufactured, had an incredibly toxic environmental impact that it would take a motorcycle hundreds of thousands of miles to equal. Lithium battery manufacture is hell on the environment.
Most Prius have NiMH batteries, only recently they switched to lithium.
But also need to consider that oil extraction, refining and transportation is not easy on the environment
Oil processing is definitely bad for the environment, but think for a moment about the scales. Just in raw materials, ignoring the massive impact of battery manufacture alone, the average motorcycle weighs less than 600 pounds. The Prius weighs about six times that. That means six times the amount of shipping, forming, refining, finishing, et cetera...
The Prius still has an internal combustion engine that burns gasoline, and requires a significant amount of rare-earth minerals for the construction of its catalytic converter. Most motorcycles now have catalytic converters, but they are smaller and thus the environment suffers less damage per vehicle.
I agree that a Prius will burn cleaner while running than probably any motorcycle -- but the total amount of damage done just by being built has to be a whole lot more than almost any motorcycle and it can't be close.