Is your car REALLY so green?
The drive towards electric is well under way — but new research suggests there’s more to consider than just petrol or battery
Huge efforts are being made by manufacturers to make our cars ‘greener’. This is being encouraged by political leaders offering consumers and manufacturers incentives — through the tax system and some electric car grants — but also penalties in the form of fines, congestion charges and the ultra Low emission Zone (uLeZ).
The aim is to make cars more environmentally and socially responsible, and help save the planet by improving air quality and the health of millions.
Recently, and particularly in the wake of the dieselgate scandal, this has come to encompass the tiny particulates emerging from petrol and diesel engines, with filters playing their part here.
LOOKING AHEAD
The move towards electric cars — with zero emissions — continues with Transport Secretary grant Shapps outlawing the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030, and only hybrids with a ‘significant’ but as yet unspecified electriconly range allowed for sale until 2035.
The ‘green’ automotive revolution also includes using more recycled materials and reducing reliance on precious resources. That can mean using parts made from recycled plastic bottles and sea plastics as well as recycled aluminium, creating plant-based ‘vegan’ fabrics for owners who have an ethical objection to leather.
usually, measuring the ‘green’ credentials of your car means reducing or eliminating completely the emissions coming out of the exhaust pipe.
It influences the annual Vehicle excise Duty (VED) you pay to drive your vehicle on the road — with this tax based on the broad principle that the more your car pollutes, the more you pay.
Car manufacturers too are set tough targets by national and international regulators to reduce these emissions.
They are already taking steps to make their factories more environmentally friendly by installing solar panels, wind farms and other green measures.
however, many argue that this is just part of the story. And that rather than measure just how ‘clean’ a car’s emissions are, we should be looking at the ‘whole life’ of the car: how ‘green’ the manufacturing process is, how much of the vehicle’s parts is made from recycled materials and how much of the final product can be recycled.
Moves are already under way to measure this — and the early results may surprise you.
THE WHOLE PICTURE
The most significant initiative is arguably the new star ratings from ‘green NCAP’, an offshoot of the euro NCAP crash test consortium. It has been assessing the most eco-friendly cars based on two main measures.
The first is a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) rating of how much CO2 a car emits during its whole life — from manufacture to its ‘end of life’ recycling.
The second is a Primary energy Demand (PED) rating of how much energy is needed to create and power that car over its lifetime — regardless of how green the energy used may be, whether derived from fossil fuels, renewable energy such as wind farms, or even nuclear power stations.
Remarkably, for whole-life energy use, the 2.0 litre TDI diesel Skoda Octavia manual estate comes out top, ahead of many pure-electric rivals (with a lifetime energy usage of 164 MWh). It is followed by the Toyota Prius 1.8 litre plug-in hybrid (PHEV) at 167 MWh, the Peugeot 208 1.5 litre BluehDi 100 diesel manual (169MWh), the new all-electric Fiat 500 87kWh auto (171MWh) and the Toyota Yaris 1.5 VVT-i hybrid auto (175MWh).
Top for lowest lifetime CO2 emissions is the new allelectric Fiat 500 with the equivalent average of 31 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
It is followed by the electric Lexus uX300e (38 tonnes), the electric Nissan Leaf e+ (38 tonnes), Toyota Prius 1.8 plug-in hybrid PHEV (40 tonnes) and the Skoda
Octavia Estate 2.0 litre TDi diesel manual (42 tonnes).
WINNING BIG
THE Fiat 500, Nissan Leaf e+, Lexus UX 300e, VW ID.3 and Ford Mustang Mach-E are among those receiving a ‘fivestar’ eco rating from Green NCAP which said of its programme: ‘It aims to promote cars that are less polluting and more fuel and energy-efficient by providing consumers with information about cars’ performance in tests that go well beyond legislative requirements.’
The organisation explained: ‘The true ecological impact and sustainability of a car must be viewed in the context of its whole life cycle. This means that all processes and flows of resources and energy associated with the car’s production, usage and recycling must be considered.’
Full details of all 61 models tested from 2019 to 2021 are available at greenncap.com.
This includes vehicles of all sizes and types, including conventional petrol and diesel, full-electric and hybridelectric cars.
For the comparative analysis, a nominal vehicle lifetime of 16 years and a total driven mileage of 240,000 km (149,000 miles) are assumed.
Separately, a new study by motor experts at Confused. com claims to reveal ‘the most eco-friendly cars for 2022’.
The website explains: ‘With fuels like petrol and diesel being banned in new cars from 2030 and the current rise in fuel prices, electric and hybrid models have never been more popular.’
The study analysed each car’s fuel/energy consumption, cost per mile and corporate and social responsibility (CSR) data, as well as which manufacturers used the most fuel-efficient technology.
Peugeot overall produced the ‘cleanest’ cars, followed by Volkswagen, Smart, Fiat, Citroen, BMW, hyundai, Mazda, Lexus and DS Automobiles.
The Top Ten cleanest models were dominated by Smart variants, holding the top six places, followed by the MG5 EV, BMW i3, Volvo S60 and Mercedes-Benz A-Class.