Green NCAP, the ‘environmental’ bit of Euro NCAP, think electric cars are probably not the answer to CO2 emissions over a car’s life cycle.
That’s the sort of thing Green NCAP – the fluffy bunny side of Euro NCAP – has been looking at with their Life Cycle Assessment for a range of vehicles. And the results aren’t surprising, although they won’t please die-hard EV advocates.
Green NCAP has calculated the estimated total life cycle greenhouse gas emissions and primary energy demand for a range of 61 cars, including petrol, diesel, hybrid and BEVs, and based their calculations on a 16-year life over 150,000 miles based on the average energy and material mix across the UK and EU.
Of course, EVs consume a big part of their CO2 tariff during manufacture, but overall – for greenhouse gas emissions – the best four are the Fiat 500, VW ID.3, Lexus 300e and Nissan LEAF, but they’re followed closely by the Toyota Prius hybrid, Skoda Octavia diesel and Peugeot 208 diesel.
When it comes to Primary Energy Demand – which calculates the total energy cost from production to recycling – the top three are not EVs, but the diesel Skoda Octavia, Toyota Prius and Peugeot 208 diesel.
It seems clear from Green NCAP’s figures that EVs are not the panacea many think, although if you go small enough they do work out to be better. But once you get to medium and large BEVs there is no real difference between EV and ICE.
You can check out Green NCAP’s findings here.
Trevor@heley.org.uk says
More FUD promoted by the old auto/oil industry. As more ‘*green electricity” comes on stream and new battery developments happen this ‘well it’s not green at manufacturing argument will really be hard to peddle. Funny that the oil and gas industry never admit the true cost of producing and distributing their product and the impact that CO2 at a street level is having on our health. Still will not stop CarBuyer, Autoexpress and Autocar publishing these stories.