The Green Debate

When times were good we could afford to shout at the motor industry to be greener, but now that we're broke, has the green debate lost its appeal?

For 100 years there has been little or no development of the motorcar: it is only in the last few years we have looked at a genuine workable alternative to the internal combustion engine! A recent debate at the Irish Motoring Writers Association's 'Green Forum' sponsored by Semperit touched on many issues, and while the electric car was put on trial, there was no clear conclusion as the jury is out on 'plug-in' cars as the Earth's saviour.

By 2020 Europe - and by default the Irish government - says that 10% of cars on our roads should be fuelled by some sort of renewable energy, be it electricity or bio fuel. This figure is ambitious to say the least! As consumers we can only buy what is put in front of us and bar Europe banning the majority of cars we drive today, this target will not be met.

Since the VRT changes in July 2008 we have seen the now very rare new car buyer opt for the lower cost diesel powered option instead of the traditional petrol car. Ford's 1.4 litre petrol Focus was the country's favourite car, but now the diesel version is the star performer. Car companies are already reducing CO2 by the bucket load as they know it is the only way to survive with all the emissions red tape being placed on them by Europe.

The average person will buy the car that suits their purpose and is affordable: this means thanks to our high vehicle registration taxes the greenest available. This is why the Focus diesel is selling more than the petrol, because it has lower CO2 and therefore is cheaper to own and run. Inside even the most ardent 'petrolhead' there is a little tree hugger trying to get out - sure aren't trees lovely to drive by!

But seriously, we cannot simply demonise the car! Yes, CO2 is a recognised greenhouse gas, but the car is not the real problem. Transport accounts for 10% of Ireland's CO2 emissions, but the private car is far from being the biggest culprit.

So what is on the way from the car companies that we could be driving in the not so distant future? The most significant development has been the electric drivetrain. This means we can chuck out the traditional engine and wave a sad goodbye to the noise of gears being changed and engines revved!

The fact that car companies are now designing essentially glorified electric milk floats is actually a good thing! The electric drivetrain (ie the power that turns the wheels comes from an electric motor) when powered by hydrogen fuel cells is a super efficient means of transport. All that comes out the tailpipe (in fact the tailpipe as we know it is redundant) is H2O - yep, plain old water!

As of now electric powered cars are available for trial and lease but they have limited range between the need for charging, and at the moment simply don't work in the real world as a genuine alternative to the family car.

ER-Vs (extended range electric vehicles) make most sense. They still use electricity to turn the wheels but should you run low on power there is an additional engine that acts like a generator to charge up the batteries to extend the distance you can travel to a more real world range (eg 500 kilometres).

We can expect ER-Vs in the next couple of years but for now the latest Hydrids and 'Eco' versions of diesel powered cars seem the most green. About town petrol powered superminis and town cars still make terrific sense.

Michael Sheridan