It has been a bad week for drivers. Leaked details of an EU report suggested
members of the European parliament favour a ban on vehicles emitting more
than 240g/km of carbon dioxide by 2015, a move that would outlaw many
current models of car. At the same time an opinion poll by Populus revealed
that more than a quarter of drivers believe taxes and restrictions are
becoming so onerous they will not have a car in 10 years’ time.
All this despite the fact that modern cars are much cleaner than they were and
drivers, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, have
made a “dramatic shift” towards purchasing models with lower CO2 emissions.
For instance it would take 200 modern Ford Fiestas, says Ford, to produce
the same pollutants as one 1960 Ford Anglia 105E, as immortalised in the
Harry Potter films.
Nevertheless many people think that any petrol or diesel vehicle will soon be
an expensive luxury that only the rich will be able to afford. They could be
right. A growing number of local councils are already charging a hefty
premium for drivers of bigger cars to park outside their homes. A third of
all London boroughs penalise gas guzzlers or have plans to do so, even
though in most cases their definition of a gas guzzler is anything with an
engine bigger than a modest 1400cc. “Taxation hidden behind a green
smokescreen,” say critics.
Then there’s Al Gore. Next weekend the former American vice-president’s Live
Earth concert series arrives in Britain to drum up support for further
controls on carbon emissions.
Against this background, car manufacturers are rushing to develop a new
generation of ultra-economic vehicles or ones that don’t use fossils fuels.
Smart, the quirky marque owned by Mercedes-Benz, is sponsoring the Live
Earth gigs and performers such as Madonna can expect to be ferried around
backstage in a new diesel version of its Fortwo. Its CO2 emissions of just
88g/km would make it the greenest (in terms of CO2 output) production car on
UK roads – there are plans to launch it here before the end of the year –
and the first one to fall into tax band A.
Other manufacturers are looking to new ways to power cars, including
rechargable cells, hydrogen cells and biofuels. Renault will launch
bioethanol versions of its Clio and Mégane in France next week with the UK
expected to be next in line. BMW now sells a version of its 7-series that
will run on hydrogen while Honda has leased the first hydrogen fuel cell car
to a Californian family and has promised to bring a fuel cell car – the FCX
– to the market as early as 2009.
So what does the future hold? The Sunday Times tested three cars, each
offering a different green solution and promising to be the car of choice
for future generations. The first, a Saab fuelled by bioethanol, is already
on sale; the second, an electric Smart car, will go on sale within five
years; and the third – well, you’ll have to wait at least 10 years to buy a
Ford Focus powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. We took our three green machines
for a spin and weighed up their motoring and environmental credentials.
SAAB 9-3 BIOPOWER
Biofuel
The Saab arrived with a full tank of E85, the EU-approved standard for
bioethanol. The 85 stands for the percentage of bioethanol, made from crops
such as maize and wheat, while the remaining 15% is conventional petrol to
aid combustion in cold climates. You can buy E85 on only 15 forecourts in
the UK, all owned by Morrisons supermarkets.
The 9-3 BioPower can run on either bioethanol or petrol in a single tank and
the engine management system adjusts automatically, according to the balance
of fuel. It looks like any other Saab 9-3 saloon, although our press car had
BioPower emblazoned down each side in giant green letters. Surprisingly no
one remarked on this, apart from a trio of bedraggled hippies lost en route
to Glastonbury, who gave the car the thumbs up as it sped past on the way to
the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The Saab BioPower’s supposed environmental advantage is based on a
mathematical calculation rather than what comes out of the exhaust. It
releases about the same amount of CO2 per kilometre as its petrol
equivalent, but its net CO2 emissions are supposedly cancelled out by the
next crop of biofuel planting, which will soak up the same from the
atmosphere.
Despite their hippie-friendly credentials, biofuels appear to offer a simple,
pain-free solution that even petrolheads might be able to stomach. Saab
offers bioethanol versions of all its new models, which drive almost
identically to their petrol sisters and even offer a slight increase in
power and torque thanks to bioethanol’s higher octane rating. This is going
green without the hair shirts.
But the case is not as clear cut as it seems. Even if the fuel comes from
renewable sources, and ignoring the problems of rising food prices as
fuel-generating crops compete for space, the “zero emissions” argument
ignores the processes of farming, processing and distributing bioethanol. An
EU study in 2004 estimated the overall reduction in CO2 emissions would be
20-40%, at least until processing becomes more efficient.
Running a car on E85 reduces its mpg by 25% and the BioPower Saab I drove cost
about £600 more than the conventional petrol equivalent. So far 150 have
been sold in the UK. Given the paucity of filling stations, it would be
interesting to know how often they are running on bioethanol.
SMART EV
Electric
From the outside the Smart EV looks identical to any other Smart Fortwo – only
the cable and three-pin plug where a petrol cap should be give it away. What
Smart aspires to with the EV (which stands for electric vehicle) is a
driving experience and safety record akin to a conventional petrol motor.
The car has a range of about 70 miles between charges and a top speed of
70mph. It is produced in collaboration with Zytek, a technology firm based
in Lichfield, Staffordshire, which started work on the EV in 1996, back when
Arnold Schwarzenegger was still driving Hummers and toting machineguns.
Zytek is building 100 EVs for a pilot lease programme that will begin later
this year and Smart predicts a version of the car will go on sale to the
general public “within five years”.
The EV’s abilities put it in a different league to most electric vehicles on
sale in Britain today, some of which can only loosely be termed cars. The
most popular one to date is the Reva G-Wiz, which has a top speed of 45mph
and a range of 40-50 miles. Built in Bangalore, India, it is officially a
quadracycle and feels like one. It might be fine for pootling around west
London and avoiding the congestion charge, but in unofficial crash tests the
G-Wiz failed spectacularly.
The EV we tested was still experiencing a few teething troubles: there was a
slight lag on the throttle and the virtually silent driving experience was
disrupted by a high-pitched noise, later revealed to be an overactive
cooling pump. In our test the EV achieved speeds of more than 65mph without
straining and I was assured the acceleration issues were down to incorrect –
and easily fixed – electronic control unit settings.
The EV’s main problem is its short range and six-hour charge time. For short
city hops it’s fine (provided your nearest socket isn’t on the 10th floor of
a block of flats) but it will take improvements in battery technology to
allow for longer distances between recharges.
And the car’s “greenness” depends, in part, on where the electricity comes
from. Only a small percentage of Britain’s electricity comes from renewable
sources such as wind or solar power. Still, an electric car is estimated to
reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions by about 40%, compared with petrol
engines.
FORD FOCUS FCV
Hydrogen fuel cell
Ford would lend us its fuel cell car for only a couple of hours – for fear it
would run out of fuel. It arrived, along with a prototype fuel cell version
of the Ford Explorer SUV, on a giant transporter lorry, neatly illustrating
the fundamental problem of hydrogen cars: where to refuel them.
The UK’s only hydrogen filling station, on a BP forecourt in Hornchurch,
Essex, was closed this year. Fortunately we had enough gaseous hydrogen in
the tank to get us round London and the Focus FCV (for fuel cell vehicle)
handled the journey as capably as a petrol Focus. The only noticeable
difference was the lack of engine growl. Instead the driver listens to
whirrs from the compressors forcing air into the fuel cell.
Ford currently has 35 Focus FCVs on lease in Berlin and Canada, where there
are a handful of hydrogen filling stations. The fuel cell works by combining
hydrogen and oxygen into water and in the process creating electricity that
is used to power the car. All that comes out of the exhaust pipe is
condensation.
But a fuel cell car’s green rating also depends on where its hydrogen fuel
comes from. Most hydrogen is made by breaking down fossil fuels – a process
that generates greenhouse gases and other pollutants. The most realistic
solution is to separate the hydrogen from water using electricity generated
by nuclear power. Problems also persist with the distribution of hydrogen,
which is about 10 times less energy dense than petrol and must be stored at
high pressures.
Hydrogen tanks also need to be much larger than petrol ones and in the Focus
FCV the tank takes up much of the boot. Then there are the sky-high
production costs, particularly due to the carbon-fibre fuel tank (made
partly to withstand the pressure) and platinum in the fuel cells.
Although advocates of hydrogen fuel insist the problems are surmountable,
don’t expect to be able to replace your conventional Focus with the FCV any
time soon. Ford doesn’t expect to begin selling a fuel cell car before 2017.
Biofuel: Saab 9-3
Model Saab 9-3 Vector BioPower
Engine type 1998cc, four cylinders
Power 175bhp @ 5500rpm
Transmission Five-speed manual
Fuel / CO2 27.5mpg / 183g/km
Acceleration 0-62mph: 8.4sec
Top speed 138mph
Price £23,200 Date of release Out now
Electricity: the Smart
Model Smart EV
Engine type Electric motor (hot sodium battery)
Power 75bhp
Transmission Automatic
CO2 None from the car
Acceleration 0-31mph: 6.5sec
Top speed 70mph (limited)
Lease price £300-£400pm
Date of release Expected before 2012
Hydrogen: Ford Focus
Model Ford Focus FCV
Engine type Hydrogen fuel cell and electric motor
Power 91bhp
Transmission Automatic
CO2 None from the car
Acceleration 0-62mph: 13.5sec
Top speed 80mph
Cost of prototype £1m
Date of release Not before 2017
Land Rover
Nissan
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Fiat
the piston engine - modified and compounded - still has a long way to go on land. Electric transmissions and wheel motor-generator-alternator-regenerators - Lithium-ion or vanadium redux batteries able to be charged from the mains at office or at home (or parking section of apartments) with charging there off-peak or night rate - can help. Carbon-fibre rust.less light and strong will help - as well as i.c. engines with no cooling systems - having ceramic components such as valve and piston crowns for a start - will help in minimising consumption of diesel-replacement fuels. A/c using chilled water and absorption rather than vapour-compression will help - as will the present electric water pumps and electric or electric-hydraulic steering. Camshafts are still a problem.
Donald MacDonald , Brisbane , Queensland AUSTRALIA
Perhaps somone should at least study hydrazine, N2H4.
It is icky and unstable but contains no carbon and is a liquid at room temperature. Cars would be made from aluminum and weigh roughly 1 tonne. Engines would run rich to eliminate NOx emission and there would be no CO or CO2 emissions.
Fuel and aluminum would be produced from atomic power.
Hydrazine-powered engines would have carburators instead of fuel injection. This results in a significant maintenance savings. Carburated engines do not require the electric fuel pump in the fuel tank as does fuel injection engines. The governing principle here is that useful energy policy if politically forbidden.
William Ernest Schenewerk, Los Angeles, CA