UK: Greenest and least green car of the year announced

The least green car was found to be the 8-litre Dodge SRT-10 sports car.

A year's driving in the Dodge emits the same amount of CO2 as is absorbed by 322 mature trees - the equivalent of an acre of oak forest*.

The ETA examined over 1300 models of car currently on sale in Britain and compared their power, emissions, fuel efficiency and even the amount of noise they produce to create a definitive guide to buying the greenest vehicle.


A fully searchable database of the results and full details on each car will be published at www.greencarawards.co.uk

Andrew Davis, director at the Environmental Transport Association, said: "The discrepancy between the greenest and the least green cars in Britain today is striking, but the market is changing and a combination of consumer pressure alongside government leadership will result in an increasing choice of environmentally-sound cars."

"The big problem is not the Dodge SRT-10s and Lamborghinis because there are not many of them on the road," explains Andrew Davis, director of the ETA. "The concern is that people are continuing to buy cars that are much too big for their real needs. "

"With the increasing costs of motoring and the threat to the environment there has never been a more important time to choose greener cars."

[B]Why do diesels do well in this survey?[/B]

Half an hour of sniffing diesel fumes in a busy city street is enough to induce a "stress response" in the brain, according to scientists who measured volunteers. The response continued to increase even after they had stopped breathing the fumes.

There is speculation that the changes in the brain may trigger other body responses to diesel fumes, such as oxygen deprivation in the heart. Previous studies in rats have shown that minuscule soot particles can make their way directly to the brain via nerves in the nose.

There is a popular belief that because of their lower average CO2 emissions, diesels are better for the planet. Unfortunately it appears that it is people, particularly those in built-up areas that might be paying the price.

However, the advent of diesel particulate filters (DPF) such as fitted to some of the category winners heralds a dramatic improvement in the environmental rating of diesels. DPFs remove all trace of soot form the exhaust gases.

[I]* Dodge SRT-10 emits 488g/km CO2 and assumes 14,484 kilometers a year travelled.[/I]

Credits: JRC