The Truth About ‘Green’ Cars

Thursday, 13. May 2010

We are all being forced to consider greener cars and the manufacturers have to be seen to be actively developing more environmentally friendly engines or face some hefty fines. So you may be forgiven for thinking that the cars being marketed as ‘green cars’ are much more fuel efficient than standard cars. Well according to latest research the differences can be minimal. For example the Skoda Octavia Greenline is just 1.4 miles per gallon better than the standard 1.6TDi and yet you have to pay a premium for the green car which won’t necessarily be worth any more when re-sold. Some manufacturers have been quite cute and made the spec of the green options different to the spec of their standard cars thus making it difficult to make direct comparisons, typical examples are the Kia Ceed Eco-Dynamics, VW Bluemotion models and Ford’s Econetic derivatives. So the point is that if you are wishing to save money as well as the planet you should do your homework first. Make sure that the green car is returning want you want it to return. Fleet News carried out an exercise and worked out the miles you would have to travel in a green car compared to a standard car before you broke even. In the case of a Ford Focus 1.6TDCi, compare the Econetic to the 110 Style you would have to travel 115,000 miles to break even or 64,000 miles in the Econetic stop/start. Others varied around 40 – 50,000 miles with the big loser being the Skoda Octavia when comparing the 1.6TDi SE with the 1.6TDi Greenline, in order to break even you would have to travel a staggering 258,000 miles! As always you need to do your homework! By Graham Hill