Stop Start Technology – How Does It Work? | The Best Car Finance Blog In The World

Stop Start Technology – How Does It Work?

Thursday, 29. October 2009

More and more manufacturers are embracing the new stop-start technology in an effort to reduce car emissions to meet the targets set by the EU if they are to avoid some hefty fines. “But how does stop-start work Graham?” I hear you all shouting at your computer screen. In fact I can’t hear you shouting, I’m imagining it. In fact you may not even give a monkey’s banana but you’re going to be told anyway! Let’s take the Vauxhall system which will be introduced into the Corsa and Astra next year. When you stop the car the engine stops and when you go to move off it starts again. ‘Simples’ as the strange looking rat type animal says on the insurance advert ‘compare the rat.com’. Whatever! OK for the technical boffins amongst my avid readers here’s what happens. When you stop your car and engage neutral the engine cuts out automatically. When you then depress the clutch ready to engage gear and move off the engine restarts itself. The Vauxhall system will be an extension to its current Ecoflex system and goes on sale in the Corsa next September. The aim is to reduce CO2 emissions from the 1.3 turbo diesel engine to 98g/km. The current Ecoflex Corsa has emissions of 105g/km. Reducing the emissions to below 100g/km will mean that the cars will be exempt from vehicle excise duty (car tax). Ford have also announced similar systems on their Focus for launch next spring along with Seat on their Leon and VW on their Golf. It was interesting to note that all 3 manufacturers have announced that emissions will be down to 99g/km so there isn’t much room for ‘extras’. You may recall the item that I wrote earlier this year when I explained how some cars tipped over the tax benefit threshold after having extras such as bigger wheels, air con and other extras that cause the car to use up more energy fitted onto the car. If you are ordering a car based on it’s carbon output make sure that you confirm the output of the ordered car rather than rely on the information in the brochure. By the way if you are a company and you like to buy your cars, if the CO2 output is below 110g/km you can take advantage of the full first year’s writing down allowance. By Graham Hill