bemoreeco

Volvo have launched a campaign to make people more aware of the dangers that car emissions pose to our health.

Did you know that as many as 50,000 people a year are dying prematurely due to toxic air emissions, linked to fossil fuel combustion? That’s more than 20 times the number that die in road accidents in the UK each year! [source: Environmental Audit Select Committee]

The most dangerous of these emissions NOx, Hydrocarbons and Particulates. But together, we’ll call them “Nasties”. Watch this animation to see the Nasties in action.

Find out more about the Fight for Your Right To Clean Air at www.facebook.com/insidevolvouk and join the debate at www.twitter.com/insidevolvouk

The team at BBCGreen have carried out some investigation on the myths surrounding Green cars.  My wife is pushing me to replace our current car with a more Eco-Friendly one, but I am not to sure what is the best path to take. Hopefully this 5 part series we have put togther about the myths of buying a Green Car will help. This is the last myth.

It’s what you drive that counts -  How you drive matters a lot too. Eco-driving can be fascinating and quite fun. Imagine there’s an unbroken raw egg between your foot and the accelerator pad – be smooth rather than sticking to the bumper in front.

The trick is to think ahead: read the road, anticipate where the traffic will be and how it’s moving. If you adopt this kind of driving style, you’re less likely to encounter any nasty surprises. 

You won’t have spurted on the accelerator, only to jam on the brakes seconds later and throw away the momentum from the fuel you burned.

With practice you’ll get along pretty much as quickly and you’ll be safer. On motorways, dropping your cruise by just 5 mph will reduce fuel use by up to 10 per cen

This was the last Green Car myth which we are going to publish from BBCGreen. If you are now clearer on what car strategy you should take  please post your comments. I have now provided my wife with the information we have published and I am waiting to see what her Green Car choice is going to be.

The team at BBCGreen have carried out some investigation on the myths surrounding Green cars.  My wife is pushing me to replace our current car with a more Eco-Friendly one, but I am not to sure what is the best path to take. Hopefully this 5 part series we have put togther about the myths of buying a Green Car will help. Below is green car myth number 4.

Manufacturing matters more than mpg - The usually infallible green mantra ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ stumbles when it comes to cars. Refurbishing old vehicles and giving them a long life isn’t always the greenest solution – not if they’re thirsty and dirty. The manufacture and recycling of a modern car accounts for 10–15 per cent of its lifecycle energy consumption – the rest is in driving it.

It follows that the biggest win is to cut the fuel used as you drive – and modern cars are more economical than old ones. Only drive an old car if you clock up very few miles a year.

As with local food, local manufacture has an effect too. BBC Top Gear Magazine calculated that the CO2 emissions of the ship that brings a hybrid car from Japan can negate the fuel savings from a whole year’s driving. But many of the other Japanese-badged cars on sale here are actually made in British factories, so research where a potential purchase comes from.

BeMoreEco will be publishing a new myths each Monday over the 4 week so come back .

The team at BBCGreen have carried out some investigation on the myths surrounding Green cars.  My wife is pushing me to replace our current car with a more Eco-Friendly one, but I am not to sure what is the best path to take. Hopefully this 5 part series we have put togther about the myths of buying a Green Car will help. Below is green car myth number 3.

Biofuel is perfect - Biofuels certainly sound great – after all, they’re a renewable solar energy store made from plants. The problem is that much bioethanol (the petrol substitute) is grown using land that might otherwise be feeding people and is refined in energy-inefficient factories. So far, it is also available in very few parts of the country – no fuel is green if you have to drive miles to buy it.

As for biodiesel, a high proportion is derived from palm oil, often in damaging monoculture on slashed-and-burned ex-rainforest land.

In a decade or so, it’s likely we will have biofuels produced with efficient processes from waste organic matter, or made by bacteria. The field is wide open and hopeful, but we’re talking mid-term for a solid answer.

BeMoreEco will be publishing a new myths each Monday over the 4 week so come back .

The team at BBCGreen have carried out some investigation on the myths surrounding Green cars.  My wife is pushing me to replace our current car with a more Eco-Friendly one, but I am not to sure what is the best path to take. Hopefully this 5 part series we have put togther about the myths of buying a Green Car will help. Below is green car myth number 2.

 
Big is best - However a car is powered – diesel, petrol, biofuel or hybrid – the fact is if the engine has less metal to move, it will use less fuel. So buy a car no bigger than you need.
If you only fill your car on family holidays, think about buying something smaller and – crucially – lighter, and renting a hulk just for the holiday. It’ll be cheaper in depreciation and insurance as well as, obviously, fuel.

Don’t imagine that only big barges can be safe or comfortable – not any more, anyway. A new Vauxhall Corsa is safer, more refined and better equipped than a Vectra, a car two sizes up, was in the 1990s. Four-wheel-drives are usually heavy, that’s their crime.

Bemoreeco will be publishing a new myths each Monday over the 4 week so come back .

The team at BBCGreen have carried out some investigation on the myths surrounding Green cars.  My wife is pushing me to replace our current car with a more Eco-Friendly one, but I am not to sure what is the best path to take. Hopefully this 5 part series we have put togther about the myths of buying a Green Car will help.  

Hybrids are the only answer

As green statements, the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic Hybrid are unrivalled but as green cars, that’s not always the case. Hybrid systems excel in stop–start town driving – their efficiency derives from the kinetic energy recovered as you hit the brakes. This energy is stored in the battery and then reused with an electric motor – so the engine doesn’t have to work as hard when you next hit the gas.

But on the open road, your speed is near-constant and this is when hybrid cars have less of an advantage. So if you live out of town, a diesel engine can compete with a hybrid petrol one. 

You can see this by comparing a car’s official fuel figures, which give an ‘urban’ figure and an ‘extra-urban’ one. For example, the Honda Civic Hybrid achieves 11.5 more miles per gallon than its diesel counterpart in town, but fares exactly the same in the extra-urban test. 

Combine this wisdom with the small-car advice below. The Toyota Prius hybrid is a big, roomy car, so makes a good economy choice if you need that space. If you don’t, dropping down a size can tip the balance the diesel’s way. The diesel Volkswagen Polo Bluemotion, for example, has the same CO2 figure as the Prius or Civic hybrids.

BeMoreEco will be publishing a new myths each Monday over the 4 week so come back .