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Originally Posted by zimbop
Also, I don't believe there's anything magic about the hybrid as an emissions scrubber. X amount of gasoline burned in a hybrid ICE has relatively the same emissions as X amount of gas burned in a ICE without hybrid. You have to burn less gas to make less exhaust, or am I missing something? Getting more power for the same emissions is not going to eliminate any smog, it will just help us make smog faster.
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You're missing something. You are correct that hybrid technology does not itself reduce emissions (besides by reducing fuel consumption) but you are wrong in thinking two cars with equal mileage have equal pollution. Ford, Volkswagen, Honda, and others have already created PZEV cars that are perfectly ordinary but they get PZEV-level emissions. It's all about how the gas is burned and the scrubbing stuff that converts the exhaust gas into less harmful forms. Also some fuel tank stuff is added to reduce evaporative emissions (unburnt gas is far more harmful than burnt gas) which is why PZEV vehicles usually have smaller gas tanks than their regular equivalent... to keep the exterior size the same (so it fits), but have the extra emissions controls, the interior size shrinks a bit.
Likewise, this GS 450h is also an AT-PZEV if I'm not mistaken. Yet it gets "ordinary" mileage.