Over the past decade or so, there have been huge strides made in terms of making cars more eco-friendly. Electric and hybrid-drive cars produce fewer emissions at source, which reduces their impact on local air quality. They still require electrical energy, the majority of which is still produced by burning fossil fuels, but you can lessen the impact of this by signing up to a renewable energy tariff, or by installing renewable energy generators such as solar panels in your home.
At the moment, the range (the amount of miles you can drive without a recharge) of electric-only cars means that these are only really suitable for city driving, which is why hybrid drive vehicles are currently preferred. These are powered by an electric motor, with a high-efficiency petrol engine being used to charge the battery or take over when the battery runs flat.
The most important statistic to look at when considering an eco-friendly car is the level of CO2 emissions. Generally speaking, the lower these are, the less a car contributes towards climate change, and if it is under 100 g/km, then the car will be exempt from road tax.
An eco-friendly car won’t just help to reduce your environmental impact, it can also save you money as well. Although the initial cost of this type of car tends to be higher, the lower fuel costs, and the tax-exempt status of them, means that they can save you a lot of money over the long term. The most important statistic, in terms of how much the car will cost to run, is the effective kilometers per liter of the car. The higher the number, the less you will need to refuel the car, saving you money at the petrol pump. So, without further ado, here are the three most eco-friendly cars available in the UK:
The most environmentally-friendly cars on the UK market at the moment are the Chevrolet Volt and the Vauxhall Ampera. These two models are effectively the same car, designed and built by the same parent company (General Motors), with only minor cosmetic and functional differences. At the time of writing, the Chevrolet is slightly cheaper to buy, which makes it a more attractive option. Both cars are theoretically capable of 235.4 miles per gallon by using a combination of a 1.4 litre petrol engine and an electric motor, with CO2 emissions of 27 g/km. Like most hybrid-drive cars, they can be powered entirely from the battery for shorter journeys, but will require some help from the petrol engine on longer trips. General Motors claims that you can charge both cars up for around £1, depending on the electricity tariff you are on, and this should be enough to keep the car going for around 50 miles or so.
If you need something a little bigger, then the Volvo V60 could be the hybrid-drive car for you. Despite its massive 2.4 litre engine and all-wheel-drive technology, it can still manage an impressive 148.7 miles per gallon, and puts out around 49 grams of CO2 for every kilometre driven.
Having been the first mass-market hybrid-drive car to sell in significant numbers, the Toyota Prius is still synonymous with eco-friendly driving. It’s a bit larger than GM’s offerings, with a bigger 1.8 litre engine and correspondingly higher emissions of 49 g/km. Fuel efficiency-wise, it can manage 134 MPG, which is much less than the Volt/Ampera, and is more surprisingly less than the Volvo V60, but is still much better than the majority of cars on the road.
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