Post-Carbon Living - Top 10 Cars


		living: 30 years from now

Our pick of the best reads:

Jeff Rubin "Why your world is about to get a whole lot smaller"

Greg Craven "What's the worst that could happen?"

Lester Brown "Plan B 3.0"

Shaun Chamberlin "Transition Timeline"

Andrew Simms & David Boyle "The New Economics"

Anthony Giddens "The Politics of Climate Change"

Tamzin Pinkerton & Rob Hopkins "Local Food"

Clive Hamilton "Growth Fetish"

Richard Heinberg "Peak Everything"

Richard Heinberg "Oil Depletion Protocol"

"The Green Building Bible" vol 1

Mark Lynas "Six Degrees"

Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers Dennis Meadow "Limits to Growth"

Aubrey Meyer "Contract & Converge"

Alexis Rowell "Communities, Councils & A Low-Carbon Future"

From the Library Shelf:

Proud Co-Founders of Transition Town High Wycombe

Top Ten Cars - 2007

Cars? There is no such thing as an environmentally friendly car. Most of us should travel by foot, train or bus. We probably all will have to one day. This section is less about singing the praises of the automobile and more about spreading good information out there to those people who really HAVE to have a car. For those of us who travel on Business, the country vet, the farmer, the midwife, salesmen and the like. What are their options in the short term? There is no point sitting at home and waiting for society to slowly come round to the Post-Carbon Living way of thinking...

Instead we must continue to offer leadership in our necessary personal transportation. Plus there is so much that can be done. Read on.....

Low Carbon Carriages

Links

The information we print here is freely available on the web at www.vcacarfueldata.org.uk. You can download a spreadsheet (included here) for free. We have sorted our spreadsheet by lowest CO2 emissions first. However you can also get other statistics from the spreadsheet such as the Fuel Efficiency and Noise figures for your make and model of vehicle.

Don't worry if you don't have the right software for the spreadsheet. We have summarised the top eleven cars (yes we cheated - for a reason) below for you. For comparison consider the g/km of CO₂ PER PASSENGER (!) for the following:

Full Transatlantic Cruise Ship = 1611
Short Haul Flying = 250 to 300
Long Haul Flying = 201
Motorbike = 107
Bus = 89
Rail = 60

Lowest CO2 Emissions nos 11 thru 1

Number 11: Smart ForFour LPG. Figures from www.goingreen.co.uk indicate that this LPG conversion yields a CO2 g/km of just 110. Used cars are available from £10,795 GBP. The conversion for your existing car costs £1,999GBP (plus VAT). This makes it an expensive way of saving CO2 but remember this is not Diesel! Being LPG means the soot emissions are 90% lower. It costs just £30GBP/year for UK Road Tax. LPG, of course, by Calorific value (ie, its energy content) is approximately half the Price of Petrol. These cars pay for themselves. However, these figures are from the Company selling the LPG Conversions so are NOT independent. Hence proceed with caution. To be fair, their numbers are perfectly reasonable. We include this car in this ranking by way of comparison with all the other cars shown here. VCA Car Fuel Data do not measure LPG Cars in their numbers unless they are supplied directly from the Manufacturer. The ForFour is a small four seat car that can reach 103mph at 60mpg combined cycle.

Number 10 & 9: Peugeot's "107" 1.0 (65 bhp). This petrol powered vehicle appears twice but this only reflects the fact that the Manual and Automatic gear boxes are measured separately. The results are the same but we recommend the Manual because Manuals are always, at least, 5% more efficient than the Auto equivalent. This tiny car yields 109 g/km of CO2. This figure of '109' is shared by EIGHT Cars out of the top eleven. Hence the ranking of "10" or "9" here is meaningless. They could equally be ranked "2" and "3"! The Peugeot gives you 61.3mpg combined.

Number 8 & 7: Toyota's "Aygo" 1.0 VVT-i 3 & 5 door. Again, the difference is the gearbox. Please choose the manual! These are petrol engine vehicles, albeit, small ones. MPG Combined is 61.4. CO2 emissions are, of course, just 109g/km.

Number 6: Honda's Civic Hybrid 104 IMA ES. This is a "petrol electric". We are all familiar with the Prius, well, this is Honda's equivalent. Unlike the cars mentioned above, with their diminutive 1 litre engines, this beast has a 1339 cc engine but gives 61.4 mpg. CO2 is 109 g/km.

Number 5 & 3: Citroen's "C1" 1.0i & HDi. The first is petrol whilst the second is Diesel. However both yield the 109 g/km figure. The Diesel has the better MPG figure of 68.9 versus 61.4 for the petrol. So take your choice. The fuel cost of the diesel is 7% lower than the petrol. Engine Capacity is 1398 cc.

Number 4: Toyota's "Aygo" 1.4D-4D 3 & door Diesel. The Aygo again but this time the Diesel Version. This appears to be the same diesel unit as used on the Citroen C1 mentioned above. Hence the figures are identical in all respects. All yield the 109 g/km figure. The Diesel has the better MPG figure of 68.9 versus 61.4 for the petrol. So take your choice. The fuel cost of the diesel is 7% lower than the petrol. From this you can draw your own conclusion. Toyota's Aygo and Citroen's C1 appear to be the same vehicle. So you are buying a badge and rather cosmetic features... Rather limits the choice doesn't it?

Number 2: Toyota's Prius 1.5 VVT-i Petrol Hybrid. What to say about the famous Toyota Prius? Like the Energy Saving Light bulb it has been held up as an icon of what is possible. From your 1.5l petrol engine you get 65.7 mpg through the benefits of recycling energy normally lost in braking. However both the C1 and Aygo diesels give higher mpg and lower running costs. The Prius comes in with just 104g/km CO2 but note that it is not number one. It is good but it is just pipped at the post. Probably because it is too big. Regenerative braking equipment is big and heavy.

Number 1: Smart ForTwo Coupé LPG. Surprising isn't it? Whilst the Prius remains a green Icon it yields higher Carbon output than a humble LPG Smart Car. Why don't we hear more about this? Because many deep green environmentalists don't like LPG. This Smart pushes out just 93g/km CO2! The LPG tank is installed underneath the car. You get 84mph and 60mpg combined cycle. Prices used start at £7,999 GBP. Expensive but the running costs are extremely low as explained earlier. Our only caveat is that these figure are from Going Green who install the LPG systems. As we mentioned before, they are believable figures from our research. Hence the LPG Smart is our recommendation. The Independent Newspaper agrees. Go to our LPG section here to read more.

'08 Stop Press 1 - Smart Diesel

Well, if you thought 93g/km was a good number read this: Smart have finally decided to release right-hand-drive Diesel Versions of the Smart ForTwo in Britain. Before these were only available as imports in left-hand-drive. CO2 emissions are promised to be only 88g/km. The RHD versions start being manufactured in February 2009. Fuel consumption is 85.6mpg with a range on a full tank of 670 miles.

And for those of you concerned with Smart Car safety a remarkable advert was shown on UK screens during May 2008. It featured a ForTwo being smashed by a wrecking ball at 25mph. A stuntman sat in the car without harness or helmet. After the smash both doors could be opened and the Smart was driven away. Remarkable.

'08 Stop Press 2 - LPG for the Top 10

LPG conversions are now available for the Petrol engined Toyota Aygo, Citroen C1 and Peugeot 107. To give you an idea as to how good this is then think: £14 GBP will fill the tank and get you 255 miles. UK Road Tax will be just £15. If we guess at an average 16% saving in CO2 emissions over the Petrol equivalents then 109gm/km - 16% = 92gm/km. Rather than competing for the positions in the top ten they will all be number one.

The Bottom Line

What to say? Prius good but Smart LPG or Diesel better? Yes, maybe. However, our figures on the LPG Smart came from the Goingreen web site in 2007 although that page has now gone. They can't be relied upon like the VCA data however the numbers look reasonable. Think about it. Between LPG & Diesel you now have a choice of vehicles here that can get you into the sub-100 g/km zone. That is where you need to be.

We can only recommend a Prius if you do short town journeys with lots of starts and stops. For long motorway journeys a small petrol (converted to LPG) or diesel (listed here) will be good. Remember, if you take one passenger then your CO₂ g/km per passenger will be around 50. That is as good as Rail or Bus. So think small & add passengers. Then you'll be able to look all those bus passengers in the eye. Even so, one source quotes long distance Coach Travel as costing us only 20 g/km.... If only a Coach would take me door to door......

Conclusion

Low Carbon Man

Get out and walk or cycle. Give up that car.
Whilst cars remain quasi-essential then get once of these low-carbon machines and save, save, save.

References:	References