It’s taken a very long time for drivers to wake up to the importance of carbon dioxide exhaust emissions, and the effect they have on warming the planet. Why has it taken so long? Because it’s pretty dull and didn’t affect them financially. Now it does so people are interested. But are we still missing the point?
CO2 is relevant but so are three other tailpipe gases – oxides of nitrogen (Nox), hydrocarbons and diesel particulates. Volvo is calling for environmental labelling of all new cars – which currently only shows CO2 – to highlight them as well.
Think of it this way. CO2 might affect our children’s children, but the other trio are affecting us now. Around 50,000 premature deaths a year in the UK are blamed on poor air quality.
In CO2 terms a good car is 100 grammes per kilometre (g/km) and a bad car is 300. But with Nox, hydrocarbons and particulates, the spread of new vehicle performance is much greater; the best is 49 but the worst is 2,080. It’s because the vehicle manufacturers aren’t really thinking about this, they’re just focusing on CO2.
As a rule, small cars with low-capacity engines tend to do well on CO2, but with the other three size doesn’t matter. A tiny Fiat 500 1.4- litre puts out 484g/km while a much larger Volvo V70 2.5-litre estate does less than half that.
Getting the public interested in this is going to be hard – it’s just not sexy – so well done Volvo for taking a lead. It’s about to launch an iPhone app that allows people to select a make and model of car and immediately know its other emissions. Search for it on iTunes.
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