The who’s who of green cars
Who is the greenest of them all?
With the oil price climbing higher every month, I think it’s time we all started to seriously think about how we can make a difference to the amount of oil we need in our lives. I came across this very interesting article on What Car? that takes a good look at the who’s who of green. It seems the winner this time around is the Smart Fortwo Roadster.
“Smart Fortwo Roadster is ‘greenest car’
26 September 2007
• New reports says Fortwo is greenest car
• Based on CO2 and nitrous oxide emissions
• Toyota Prius came 12th in survey
The Smart Roadster tops the charts as the most environmentally friendly car, according to a new report.
In the study by Cardiff University and automotive consultants Thames Clifford, researchers gave a car’s carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions 50% weighting in assessing its overall environmental score.
For the other 50%, the researchers ranked cars on their construction, energy used and end of life disposal costs.
By using this scoring system, the green car table was dominated by superminis, topped by the Smart, which is now no longer in production, and followed by other city cars such as Citroen’s C1 and the Fiat Panda.
Toyota’s petrol-electric hybrid Prius, a car often associated with environmental friendliness, came 12th in the study.
The report’s authors warned the Prius could move further down the green pecking order as greener versions of conventional petrol and diesel powered cars come on sale.
‘We’re not saying that any car that’s the same size as the Prius is better, but the gap is closing very rapidly, and conventional technologies will pass the Prius,’ Clifford Thames’ Richard Barber told the Financial Times.
Toyota has said its expects its next Prius to have carbon dioxide emissions of between 90 and 99g/km, but it won’t be on sale until 2009.
Currently, Volkswagen’s Polo Bluemotion is the car with the lowest carbon dioxide emissions, but VW plans a Golf Bluemotion - similar in size to the Prius - by the end of the year.
Citroen, Ford, Hyundai and Volvo are also planning greener versions of their small family cars in the near future.
Greenest cars
1 Smart Roadster
2 Smart Fortwo cabriolet
3 Citroen C1 1.0i
4 Peugeot 107 1.0
5 Citroen C1 1.4 HDi
6 Fiat Panda 1.2
7 Ford Ka 1.3
8 Toyota Yaris 1.0
9 Fiat Panda 100hp
10 Peugeot 206 1.4
11 Mini Cooper D
12 Toyota Prius 1.5
Source: Cardiff University/Clifford Thames ”
October 17th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Good article but some of the facts are wrong. The smart fortwo is still in production, I just bought one. In fact, they are bringing out the new 2nd generation fortwo in 2008 (looks slightly different) and they are finally going to sell them in the united states. Production was halted on the smart roadsters and forfours due to lack of demand and poor marketing on mercedes part (Smart stands for “Swatch Mercedes ART car”; Swatch dropped out a long time ago so now it is all on mercedes except that when they sell them in the states daimler chrysler is going to sell them). Also, I know a few people with roadsters and forfours. My smart fortwo gets WAY better mileage that them. My emmissions rating is also way better. I think this poll got it wrong. Anyhow, I love the smart!
October 21st, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Amazing - I discovered your blog via BlogFlux. And just yesterday my hubs and I decided to change the lives of our family by going as green as possible. I was googling green cars!!! And your latest post is just that! will be popping in regularly as I see you post all kinds of green tips! Just what I need as I am pretty clueless but am determined to make a diff for the sake of my kids.