PRLog (Press Release) -
Sep 20, 2007 -
For car-buyers who are after a cute city runaround, a family saloon or an executive auto, WhatGreenCar?
provides the ultimate guide to buying the most eco-friendly car.
The WhatGreenCar?
rating system has been designed to be easy to understand – the impact for each car is expressed as a score between 0 and 100 - the lower the score, the less the environmental impact. For comparison, an average small family car, such as the Ford Focus 2.0 TDCi, has a rating of around 50.
WhatGreenCar?
ratings are based on a database of over 16,000 cars available in the UK, which is updated every two weeks. Rather than simply recommending the greenest cars on the market, WhatGreenCar?
identifies the Top 10+ green cars in each class. That way, green car recommendations are made to suit almost any type of driver. WhatGreenCar?
also provides a simple look-up facility for all UK cars registered since 2001 so that consumers can see the environmental impact of their current car.
WhatGreenCar?
is the only green car website to give an environmental rating for all new cars based on the life cycle impacts of eight emissions including carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulates. Unlike the government's new ranking system, which only assesses CO2 exhaust (tailpipe) emissions, WhatGreenCar?’
s ratings also assess the emissions associated with a vehicle’s use and manufacture.
The advantage of an emissions impact ratings approach is that the varying levels of all the emissions assessed can be combined to produce an overall environmental impact. Without this approach it is difficult, for example, to know how to compare a petrol car with high carbon dioxide and low nitrogen oxide emissions with a similar diesel car that emits lower carbon dioxide and higher nitrogen oxides.
Ultimately this means WhatGreenCar?’
s independent guide offers comprehensive comparisons of all fuel and engine types, whether conventional petrol or diesel cars, petrol hybrids, biofuels, LPG, natural gas, or even battery electric vehicles; all at the click of a mouse.
WhatGreenCar?
has already received extensive press coverage and is establishing strong links with key organisations within the automotive sector. One of our first major partnerships has been to assist MSN cars with providing top-quality information and ratings for visitors to their site. WhatGreenCar?
will be working with other information providers to ensure that the WhatGreenCar?
rating system becomes widely used throughout the industry and becomes well known to the general public.
Tom Evans (Manager), MSN Cars:
“WhatGreenCar? is unique in coming up with a way to judge the environmental impact of every car on the market: from the day it is built to the day it goes to the crusher. WGC’s comprehensive guide gives consumers a way to make proper judgments about the ecological effect of their car buying decisions, which can only be a good thing for all.”We have also received support from other key organisations within the car industry that are working hard to reduce the environmental impacts of new cars by promoting cleaner and greener vehicles.
Greg Archer (Director), Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership:
“The site was one of the first places I looked when I was considering a new car. It provides consumers with a wealth of clear information on green car choices.”
Danny Wright (Event Manager), GreenFleet Awards: "WhatGreenCar?
features well written and impartial news and reviews, and is packed with sound advice on alternative fuels and their benefits. The site will surely become a 'must read' for consumers wishing to 'green up' their cars."
Our press presence is already growing and we anticipate becoming a major partner to the UK motoring & environmental media providing independent green assessments for all vehicles. As an example, in July the Guardian website ran a major article listing the WhatGreenCar?
selection of the top 10 green cars (by class) for summer 2007.
These included:
City car: Reva G-Wiz Rating: 6
City car: Smart fortwo LPG Rating: 23
Super-mini:
Daihatsu Sirion 1.0 Rating: 32
Super-mini:
Mini Cooper D Rating: 33
Small family car: VW Polo 1.4 BlueMotion 1 Rating:
30
Small family car: Ford Focus 1.8 Flexi-Fuel Rating:
37
Large family car: Toyota Prius Rating: 35
Large family car: Volvo V50 1.6D DIESEL Rating: 37
Executive:
BMW 318d Saloon Rating: 42
Sport: Vauxhall Tigra 1.3CDTi Rating: 42
Guardian Unlimited summer 2007:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/aug/17/travela....
To try out the tools on the WhatGreenCar?
website, simply visit
http://www.whatgreencar.com.
To view the full version of this press release please go to
http://www.whatgreencar.com/press.php.
ENDS
Notes to editors
The WhatGreenCar?
rating system expresses a vehicle's lifecycle environmental impact as a score out of 100 ranging from 0 for the greenest vehicles to 100 for the most polluting.
The rating system used by WhatGreenCar?
is based on an assessment of the environmental impacts associated with a car's use and manufacture. This includes all aspects of producing and using the fuel - the fuel cycle (primary production, extraction, transportation, refining, and vehicle operation), as well as the vehicle's manufacture, assembly and disposal - the vehicle cycle.
The WhatGreenCar?
analysis first quantifies the extent of life cycle emissions arising from the fuel and vehicle cycles (known as an emissions inventory). The air emissions assessed include the EU regulated emissions - carbon monoxide (CO), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), hydrocarbons (HCs) and particulates (PM) - and sulphur dioxide (SO2).
In addition, the three main greenhouse gases associated with road transport are assessed: carbon dioxide (CO2) , nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4).
Next, the WhatGreenCar?
analysis conducts an emissions impact assessment - as its name suggests, this quantifies the impacts of the emissions rather than just quantifying the amount of emissions produced. The advantage of this approach is that the varying levels of all the emissions assessed can be combined to produce an overall environmental impact - without this approach it is difficult to know how to compare (for example) a car with high CO2 and low NOx, with a second vehicle that has low CO2 and high NOx.
The emissions impact assessment is achieved by the use of an environmental rating tool first developed by the European Cleaner Drive Programme to assess the impacts associated with the fuel cycle. This rating system uses recognised 'external costs' to establish the relative weight to attach to different emissions - the external costs are values expressed in monetary terms that reflect the overall damage to the environment and to human health. The analysis used by WhatGreenCar?
extends the Cleaner Drive method to include vehicle cycle (car manufacture and assembly).
Using the WhatGreenCar?
rating system, the level of environmental impacts are expressed as a score between 0-100 - the lower the score, the less the environmental impact (this reverses the Cleaner Drive scores which were higher for lower emission vehicles).
Input data for the WhatGreenCar?
rating methodology comes from number of reference sources including: the Vehicle Certification Agency (for vehicle or tailpipe emissions), Concawe/JRC for fuel production greenhouse gas emissions, and numerous academic papers that estimate the emissions produced during the production of materials used for vehicle manufacture.
For a detailed report on the rating methodology adopted by WhatGreenCar?
, see the report entitled Life Cycle Assessment of Vehicle Fuels and Technologies, which is available for download from the Ecolane website: http://www.ecolane.co.uk/
projectspublications.php.
