When it concerns the clean-air credentials of new cars, it’s simple, right? Pure electrics rule, complied with by part-electrics (hybrids), then come pure petrol models, with diesels rooted to the bottom of the stack as they’re deemed dangerously dirty. That’s much more or less the line we’ve been fed – however is it true?
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Maybe not. Make that most likely not, if a shocking set of figures I’ve just seen from a respected, clean-air-obsessed car tracking as well as testing organisation is anything to go by. As far as I can tell, eco-friendly NCAP truly does understand its technical stuff, as well as appears to go out of its method to be impartial. It distances itself from car producers as well as quietly hires the test vehicles it needs from unsuspecting rental companies, before wheeling the cars into independent laboratories in Britain as well as seven other countries for tough, forensic examination.
Clean Air Zones: Oxford ZEZ pilot goes live
Part of the organisation’s crusade to enhance the air we breathe includes its clean Air Index (CAI), which is “based on a score of each pollutant”, as well as feeds into a wider, general rating. fair enough. So, of the choice of vehicles evaluated for the 2021 index, my not-so-brave prediction was pure-electrics would romp house first, hybrids second, petrol vehicles third, diesels last. Obvious. only one snag – I was horribly wrong.