News & Articles

Green Cars

June 5, 2007

By Sean O'Grady

London, England - Today is United Nations World Environment Day, and to celebrate we've assembled for your inspection some of the cleanest, greenest and most economical conventional cars you can buy right now.

They're compact, certainly, but they all use basically the same trusty internal combustion technology that we've been relying on for personal transportation for the past century or so. In all cases, you can fit four adults into their dinky dimensions, albeit sometimes at a squeeze.

They can be stylish, too, as the three newest entrants to this sub-sector of the car market prove

they all use basically the same trusty internal combustion technology

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The VW Polo Bluemotion has all the "mini tank" appeal of its siblings but has lost some kit and gained some aerodynamic aids and engine tweaks to make it the least-polluting conventional new car available.

(By the way, it's called "blue" rather than "green" because of the German company's sensitivity to the political repercussions of the word green.)

Almost as impressive is the new Mitsubishi i that will go on sale later this year and uses a tiny turbocharged engine to achieve a clever compromise between performance and economy. The Mini Cooper D also shows that you don't have to give up style if you want to help save the planet.

We're all in favour of allowing a thousand flowers to bloom when it comes to the new wave of ecologically sound ? or sounder ? motors, from electric and hybrid cars through to hydrogen fuel-cells and biofuels

The quickest and easiest way to go green is simply to downsize and drive more gently

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The Toyota Prius, Honda Civic Hybrid and Ford and Saab bio-fuel cars are all perfectly viable propositions. However, for many drivers, the technology is still too new or the cars too wacky or not sufficiently safe to consider for everyday use.

However, the Smart ForTwo is a special case in the class. It's a very capable machine, and actually pretty good in a smash, but it does only seat two.

The quickest and easiest way to go green is simply to downsize and drive more gently and economically.

World Environment Day has been going since 1972 and it's interesting to note how cars use much less fuel and emit less noxious emissions than they did back then. Plus, they're faster, heavier and safer now.

The only snag with some of these models is that the makers will force you to pay quite a high premium for them. Choosing a small diesel over a cheaper petrol version of the same car, for example, will cost you thousands more, yet you'll be unlikely to make up the investment in any realistic timeframe.

It's difficult to see why this green premium should cost so much. Green cars can be good value but they ought to be cheaper. We'll award a prize to the first carmaker to sell diesel and petrol versions of small cars at the same price (as Kia did, briefly) on a sustained basis.

Mitsubishi i
The new kid on the block. The tiny 659cc, three-cylinder engine is in the back and it's turbocharged to within an inch of its high-revving life. We like the clever, space-efficient design and the way it uses only 5.2 litres/100km, dumping a mere 114g of carbon dioxide for every kilometre it travels. Not really for chucking around corners, though. Runs on petrol. About £9500 (R135 000).

Toyota Aygo
Built alongside the near-identical Peugeot 107 and Citroën C1 at a factory in the Czech Republic. An ideal city car that has three or five doors and lots of intelligent ideas. All three cars are cheap to buy and run, with petrol or diesel power.

Is the £1000-plus (R14 000) premium for the diesel worth it? It uses 4.1 litres/100km (against 4.6 for the petrol version) and both emit 109g/km of CO2. We'd go for the one-litre petrol. From £6730 (R96 000).

Citroen C2
Superminis are too small and cheap to make it worth fitting leading-edge technology. Citroen does its best with a stop-start system on some versions of the C2 and there's a commendably clean diesel ? 113g/km of CO2 and 4.1 litres/100km, 1.7 litres/100km better than equivalent petrol models, which are £1200 (R17 000) cheaper. Diesel, from £9420 (R134 000). From R126 000 in SA.

Volkswagen Polo Bluemotion
The "Bluemotion" tag is being rolled out by VW to denote all the ultra-green versions of their cars so Golfs and Passats will follow in due course. This Polo emits only 102g/km of CO2, even less than a hybrids. On official average, it will use 3.9 litres/100km. Diesel, about £11 500 (R163 000).

Fiat Panda
Another very capable car, with flair and driver enjoyment thrown in. Fiat's advanced 1.3-litre "multijet dynamic" engine provides reasonable performance (just short of 160km/h) and excellent economy. This baby Fiat will need 4.3 litres/100km; that's better than the famous 500s of old and translates into 114g/km of CO2. Petrol, £8145 (R116 000). From R105 000 in SA.

Mini Cooper D
This is BMW group's cleanest product yet with an official average of 3.9 litres/100km, translating into CO2 emissions of only 104g/km. It has a stop-start feature so, when you're at the lights, you won't waste fuel and choke pedestrians. Why don't all cars have this? Diesel, about £14 000 (R199 000).

Daihatsu Charade
We're not sure about this one because its looks aren't to all tastes but it drives surprisingly well. This Japanese make specialises in smaller-engined vehicles and the Charade shows how good they can be at making the most of a little: 4.8 litres/100km and 114g/km of CO2 are the key numbers. Petrol, £6460 (R92 000).