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Abstract

Since hybrid technology is touted as the best alternative for curbing green house emissions as well as having fewer impacts on the environment, the most important ethical issues therefore arise from the gap between the ideals of the hybrid vehicles and the actual efficiency of the vehicles. In order to determine these issues, this paper thus looks at how the vehicle is made, the energy that it uses and whether the vehicles actually meet their reputation in terms of environmental safety.

ETHICAL ISSUES THAT ARISE FROM HYBRID CAR TECHNOLOGY

Hybrid car technology has come a long way in the past twenty years yet very few people are aware that the technology has been around since the mid 1800s. However, the early electric vehicles were weak, problematic and quite expensive and as such could not perform to the expectations of clients. It was the Ford model T that brought a revolution in the manufacture of vehicles since it was cheaper, powerful and was driven by an abundant source of energy which is gasoline. Furthermore, during the time, the United States produced enough oil to meet its internal demands as well as to create exports and this situation mate the hybrid car concept disappear till the oil crisis in the seventies. This emergency forced many players in the country to begin reconsidering hybrid vehicle technology as a way of reducing the United States reliance on oil imports (Electric Power Research Institute 2007).

Furthermore, the impact of green house emissions which mainly come from burning of fossil fuels on the environment has meant that past apathy towards environmental impacts of these fuels can no longer be maintained and as such there is an urgent need to come up with cleaner forms of fuels as well as machines that can run on them to avert the looming environmental disaster that is about to engulf the planet. This endeavor has led to the development of hybrid car technology in order to reduce the reliance on fossil fuel as well as massive government initiatives like tax breaks and widespread advertisements to encourage individuals to utilize these vehicles more. However like any other new technology, hybrid vehicle technology is bound to raise ethical concerns and there is need to address these concerns if the technology is to really meet its full potential (Electric Power Research Institute 2007).

Thesis: like any other new technology, hybrid vehicle technology is bound to raise ethical concerns and there is need to address these concerns if the technology is to really meet its full potential.

Key Words

Hybrid cars: A car that uses more than one distinct source of power to run it.

Conventional Vehicles: Vehicles that solely run on traditional source of power like fossil fuels.

Production

No one can dispute the fact that hybrid vehicles leaves leas impact on the environment than vehicles that are solely powered by fossil fuel like petrol and diesel. However hybrid vehicles are much more complex machines to make and as such factories that make them use more energy than those that make conventional vehicles. For example, the vehicle has two engines and in order to ensure that they do not become too heavy, aluminum is used to make their main frames unlike the conventional vehicles which use steel. However, the down side to this is that aluminum uses ten times more energy to produce compared to steel and its implications are that it will take ten times more energy to make an electric vehicle frame than the normal vehicle that is purely powered by fossil fuel (Fortenbaugh, C. N/D).

The other problem with the production of hybrid vehicles is that they require a large amount of minerals that are mined through strip mining to make its components for example the nickel batteries that are capable of storing more energy. However, strip mining is a very harmful form of mining to the environment since it leaves the earth bare while lots of chemical which eventually runs into rivers are deposited (Fortenbaugh, C. N/D). In sum, strip mining creates widespread harm to the ecology of an area and in some cases it will take hundreds of years before that place fully recovers.

Source of electricity

Hybrid vehicles are also considered efficient depending on how electric power that is used to charge the batteries is generated (Fortenbaugh, C. N/D). The main forms of electric power generation are through hydro power where huge dams are constructed in rivers so that they can run turbines that generate power, nuclear power plants that make use of nuclear technology, coal power plants that make use of coal to generate steam that powers turbines which generate power, wind energy and diesel power generators.

Of all these forms of power generation, only hydro power, nuclear power and wind power are considered to be relatively clean sources of energy though there are huge debates that arise from the nuclear power like safety especially after the Fukushima Daichi disaster as well as disposal of nuclear waste material.

On the other hand, if electricity that is used to recharge hybrid vehicle batteries is generated by coal based plants or diesel powered generators, then these vehicles become more harmful to the environment that the conventional vehicles (Fortenbaugh, C. N/D).

Breakeven point

Since the manufacture of hybrid vehicles lead to a lot of pollution, their benefits are supposed to be derived from their performance. One way of measuring this benefit is using the breakeven point and this is where the pollution that the vehicle causes while being made and while in operation equals that of the conventional vehicles.

In a study that was conducted by students from Worcester polytechnic Institute in 2010, they found out that the ford fusion would need to be driven for 150, 000 miles exclusively in cities and if it is in a highway it would need to go for two million miles, for it to be able to break even, the ford escape needs to go 200000 thousand miles exclusively in a city while or one million miles in a highway to break even while the Toyota Highlander will have to be driven 250000 thousand miles in a city and would never break even if driven in a highway (Fortenbaugh, C. N/D). One would have to keep in mind that breaking even here means the vehicle emitting the same amount of pollution in the air as the conventional car and as such benefits to the environment only begin to be realized after the vehicle has broken even and the implications are that unless one drives the vehicle until it surpasses the breakeven point, they are doing more harm than good to the environment.

The disparity between the break even points in cities and highways come from the fact that hybrid vehicles make significant energy savings by recharging their batteries every time the brakes are applied in the vehicle and so the fewer the brakes the less efficient the vehicle becomes. Furthermore the huge distances required for hybrid vehicles to break even is due to the fact that their engines are less efficient in terms of fuel consumption while engines of conventional vehicles have significantly improved their fuel efficiency.

Ethical issues

From the above facts, it is quite clear that the players in the automotive industry are not quite honest when they market hybrid vehicles as being green once they have been made and that they do not pollute the environment while being operated. This strategy is mainly used to increase not only overall demand for hybrid vehicles but also to make hybrid vehicles manufactured by individual companies to look more efficient and thus achieve more sales.

Engineering professions have well established ethical code of conducts that are fairly uniform which outline the engineer’s obligation to society, their clients as well as to their profession. Some of these guidelines are (American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 2006):

1. Engineers shall perform services only in areas of their competence.

2. They shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public as well as strive to comply with the principles of sustainable development while performing their professional duties.

3. They shall build their professional reputation on the basis of merit of their services and shall not compete unfairly with others.

4. They shall act in professional matters for each employer or client as faithful agents and shall avoid conflict of interest

5. They shall issue public statements only in an objective and thruthful manner.

6. They shall act in such a manner as to uphold and enhance the honor, integrity, and dignity of the engineering profession and shall act with zero-tolerance for bribery, fraud, and corruption.

7. They shall continue their professional development throughout their careers, and shall provide opportunities for the professional development of those engineers under their supervision.

How hybrid car technology is sold to the public directly seem to conflict with points number 2, 3, and5. This is because by making cars that are potentially more harmful to the environment, they are not complying with the principles of sustainable development.

Secondly, by touting hybrid car as being green and thus friendly to the economy, they are competing unfairly against their fellow engineers who design and make conventional vehicles since the public will perceive the hybrid vehicles as being more efficient while they are actually not and the conventional vehicles as being inefficient.

Lastly engineers are supposed to issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner yet what the public is being told about hybrid vehicles is far from being truthful

However assigning blame purely to the engineers for breaking their ethical obligations is to take quite a simplistic view of the matter since many professions and players are involved in the car industry and the fact that engineers may be meeting their obligations by providing accurate information to their employers yet it is these employers who fail to pass that message to the public.

The problem prom the perspective of ethical theories

To provide a proper perspective of the ethical issues that are raised by the hybrid car technology and the ethical dilemma that engineers have to grapple with, application of theories of ethical reasoning more so the deontological theory would be appropriate.

Emanuel Kant is credited with developing the deontology theory and he believed that an action is determined as being good or bad not by the results of the action but by the motive for undertaking the action. Therefore an action that produces negative results would qualify as being ethical if the motive behind the action is pure and an action that produces positive results is unethical if the motive behind the action is not pure (Kant, I. 1781).

To get back to the hybrid technology, we realize that engineers begun working on the technology because there was an urgent need to reduce environmental pollution especially that which is caused by green house emissions that basically emanate from burning fossil fuels. The world needed urgent solutions that would reduce green house emissions without having to make radical changes in their lives for example doing away with cars. This heavy responsibility was placed on the shoulders of the engineers and they have done their best to bear it.

Their efforts have not only yielded cars that though may not be perfect have reduced green house emissions but also more importantly it has forced the designers and makers of conventional vehicles to come up with technology that is more energy efficient. This circle of competition has inevitably led to reduction of greenhouse emissions that are produced by cars.

Furthermore engineers did not embark on the project just for the sake of fame or money but to solve an urgent need. Despite the fact that the solutions that they have been able to come up with may be more harmful in the short run, their motive for working on this technology was pure and as such one can say they have acted ethically.

Conclusion

Hybrid car technology has serious draw backs that may even make them more harmful to the environment than conventional vehicles in that they require a lot of energy to produce, mining of minerals required to make their batteries causes adverse effects in the economy and they are not very efficient in fuel consumption. However this technology is developed to provide a solution to urgent environmental concerns and despite the fact that it has not met this objective, we cannot say that engineers who designed these vehicles have acted in an unethical manner since their actions come from a pure motive and even if the results may be negative, no one can deny the fact that they are doing their best.

Rather than dismiss hybrid car technology, it is vital that the public embraces it and encourages the engineers to do better not because the technology is working but rather due to the promise that it holds. It is important for the public to understand that every technology has its teething problems as it begins but as engineers continue to work on these problems, the technology becomes more efficient and hybrid car technology is not an exception.

On the other hand, the responsibility of solving problems associated with the hybrid car technology should not be left to engineers who develop and make this technology alone but rather should be shouldered by all relevant stake holders. For example those that deal with power production should also double their efforts in coming up with innovative and efficient ways of generating electricity in a manner that is clean.

References

American Society of Mechanical Engineers. (2006). Code of Ethics of Engineers: Retrieved from