Gaz guzzling SUV’s are green!
New car buyers nowadays are being increasingly influenced by the “green” rating of vehicles. Energy conservation is becoming more and more important when it comes to all lifestyle choices. Cars like the toyota Prius and Honda and Lexus hybrids are selling in realtively high numbers despite the fact that they are much more expensive than the petrol only counterparts and in many real world economy tests they have proved to be less economical than the manufacturers data would have you believe.
As if things were not complicated enough, a recent research study into vehicles enviromental impact has produced some shock results. CNW research has published findings which concentrate on the “dust to dust” lifecycle of a vehicle, which takes into account energy consumption for research, development, production and design of a vehicle and added into the equation the energy cost of scrapping/recycling the vehicle at the end of its lifespan. They have then used this data along with the standard fuel consumption and emissions to produce a total energy expenditure on each car.
Amazingly cars like the Toyota Prius come way down the list in terms of lifetime impact on the enviroment, according to CNW this is due to the fact that hybrids use a lot of energy in the production cycle due to their complex design ( such as light steels and alloys to save weight) and also high costs of disposal/recycling due to the use of advanced battery systems and electic motors. This more than offsets the low fuel consumption and emissions of the cars during their lifetime. On the table produced by CNW the Prius is comes a lowly 74 on the green ranking with many large, old fashioned gas guzzlers coming much higher due to their more simple rugged design and easier recycling!
If CNW are correct in their assumptions this means that good fuel economy is only a small part of the total energy of a cars lifecycle, the energy costs
in the design, development, production and disposal being more important. In fact the survey shows that “old fashioned” vehicles - some might say crudely built vehicles - such as Jeep Wrangler, Volvo S40, Suzuki Vitara and Saab 9-3 all finish in the top 30, with Jeep having 4 different models in top 30. In fact on this measure a Prius uses 5 times as much energy than a Jeep Wrangler!
So it looks like if you want to own a gas guzzling SUV then dont let your conscience get in the way!