I’m going to be in the market for a new car soon. My biggest priority in choosing a car will be its carbon footprint but where can I find this information?
I trawled through Google but had a difficult time finding anything useful until I came across the British Government’s Act on CO2 site.
Here you can compare CO2 emissions from cars across any number of vehicle types.
The results are given in grams of CO2 per kilometer and it turns out that, not surprisingly, that smaller cars and diesel cars have the lowest emissions. The only exceptions to this are the hybrids (Toyota Prius and Honda Civic).
Which begs the question, why are there no diesel hybrids. I assume there is a good technical reason or they’d have produced one already. Anyone know?
There are also some very useful tips on greener driving which are almost as important as the type of car you drive.
2 Comments
VW is developing diesel hybrids, at least as concepts. See http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/03/revealed-volksw.html , http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/03/vws-golf-diesel.html and similar. Nothing technically impossible. The relatively new ability to sell diesel cars in California will probably help demand forecasts go up.
The new VRT is a great idea and should in theory reduce the effects motoring has on the planet, but if we want real change, is it not time the Irish government and governments in general place a corporate burden to produce eco-friendly car, firmly on car manufacturers? Who should be held accountable for a car’s effects on the environment? I’ve just started conducting a CO2 Emissions micropoll, over on my blog at the moment and am hoping this give some idea of what people are thinking. Regards PJ