I read about a college study comparing the overall carbon "footprint" of a Prius when compared to a Hummer H3. The Prius has a larger carbon footprint due to the fact that more materials are used in its construction and come from around the world, whereas the Hummer is domestically built from many recycled materials. Even though the Hummer gets much worse fuel mileage, it is simply less polluting in the big picture than the Prius. The Prius battery starts it life at a nickel mine in Canada. The process of mining the nickel is not very efficient, and the equipment burns a lot of fuel. Its primary refining process also uses a ton of fossil fuels, and is not very "green". Then, the nickel is shipped by boat halfway around the word to India, where further refining and assembly takes place. The boat burns what? OIL! The energy needed to make the battery in India uses more energy. India is not known for its environmental friendliness. Then the parts are shipped again by boet to Japan, where the Pruis gets put together. Hmm, an oil burning internal combustion engine AND an electric motor get shoved into a golf cart. Again, energy is used to build the thing. Finally, it is shipped by boat to the US, loaded onto a truck or train, and driven across the continent to the North East, burning even MORE fuel! All those extra steps makes the Prius less environmentally friendly than a gas guzzling SUV. You are better off buying a small domestic car that gets reasonable gas mileage and the same size like a Chevy Cobalt or Ford Focus, saving a few thousand dollars, than paying a premium for the Prius. BTW, it will take you over 10 years to recoup the gas savings in your Prius as compared with another small car of the same size. That is, unless you have to replace the battery before then (which you will). The Hybrid is a waste of time and money.