TIPS

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

The Myth Of The So-called Green Car

It turns out that so-called 'green' cars like the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight have the greatest environmental impact when the overall cost of construction and disposal are taken into account as well as fuel emissions.

According to November's issue of What Car? the vehicles with the lowest 'carbon foot-print' were gas-guzzling 4X4s like the Jeep Wrangler and Suzuki Grand Vitara. Although these vehicles have greater fuel consumption and therefore emissions they are built using established production methods that use less energy during their construction.

The latest hybrid vehicles like the Honda and Toyota rely heavily on batteries and electric motors which are much more costly to dispose of. The report highlights the fact that fuel consumption is "only a small part of the total energy used in a vehicle's lifetime".

My advice, if you want to be seen to be green when in a car, is go for a Volkswagen Lupo. This little baby returns up to 70mpg.

No comments: