Articles
Replacing your vehicle. How Much Energy is used to manufacture a Car?
I. Calculations as Done By Matt Savinar:
The average car will consume during its construction 10% of the energy used during its lifetime.
Source: "Automobiles: Manufacture Versus Use," published by the Institute for Lifecycle Environmental Assesment;
How many barrels of oil does it take to equal the energy consumed during 10% of a car’s lifetime? Let’s see:
In the US, the average car has a median lifetime of 17 years. (Source: Matt Creenson, Associated Press: "Is This the Beginning of the End?" )
On average, a car will consume 750 gallons of gas per year.
17 years x 750 gallons of gas per year = 12,750 gallons of gas consumed during the median lifetime of an American car;
1 gallon of gas = 125,000 BTUs;
12,750 gallons consumed x 125,000 BTUs per gallon = 1,593,750,000 BTU’s consumed during the median lifetime of an American car.
1,593,750,000 x 10% = 15,9375,000 BTUs consumed during the car’s construction;
159,375,000 BTUs consumed during construction divided by 5,800,000 BTU’s in one barrel of oil = slightly more than 27 barrels of oil. Twenty seven barrels of oil (42 gallons of oil per barrel) contain 1,142 gallon of oil.
II. Calculations As Done by Michael C. Ruppert:
Michael C. Ruppert, editor of From the Wilderness and author of Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of The American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil, has estimated the construction of the average car consumes 42 barrels of oil. In a private email (reprinted with Mike's permission), he provided the following calculations/observations:
"When discussing 100 mpg vehicles one must absolutely figure in the amount of energy required to make these “new” vehicles. I have good numbers showing that it requires 12% of all the hydrocarbon energy a vehicle will use in its lifetime just to make the vehicle in the first place (ore mining, raw material transport, paint, electricity, etc . . ."
"And this does not factor in the hydrocarbon energy required to make the non-existent factories that make the vehicles in the first place. Nat’l Geographic told us last June that there are 7 gallons of oil in every new tire. These net-energy costs are crucial to avoid making some painful mistakes and possibly dangerous assumptions."
"Assuming 25 gallons/wk of consumption over about 15 years (average vehicle life expectancy) that is 19,500 gallons of gasoline for a vehicle lifetime. 12% of that is 2,340 gallons of gasoline equivalent to make the vehicle in the first place. These are fixed costs that won’t change as you make higher-mileage vehicles."
"This country has almost 250 million vehicles on the road. So we’re looking at 585 billion gallons of gasoline equivalent to make these new 'theoretical' cars. Assuming a 1:1 conversion from oil to gasoline (It can’t be that efficient) that’s roughly 13.9 billion barrels (42 gallons per barrel) of oil just to make these cars."
"Is there 13.9 billion barrels of crude lying around anywhere for this process to even begin? Not hardly. There's no elasticity anywhere and this process would require taking oil supplies away from existing use to implement. Remember, you haven’t even built the factories yet. Where does that oil come from?"
Interesting FACTS:
50% of each barrel of oil is used for motor fuels
Other uses of that fuel
- Heating
- Plastics
- Lubricants
- Asphalt
- Anything that says petroleum distillates
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