Tuesday 17 May 2011

ICE vs EV: compare the real emissions figures

Live in the UK and want to know when is the best time to plug in your electric car? Or compare the true emissions figures for EV marques with conventional cars? Then visit Mike Boxwell's Owning An Electric Car website. I've just been there and here are the results:

Based on the carbon footprint right now (as I am writing this blog piece), this is how electric car emissions compare to those of conventional cars: 
REVA L-ion
50g/km
Mitsubishi iMiEV
55 g/km
REVA i
61 g/km
MINI e
67 g/km
Nissan LEAF
84 g/km


Toyota Prius
107 (89)g/km*
Fiat 500 TwinAir
114 (95)g/km*
Ford Fiesta ECOtec
118 (98)g/km*
VW Polo Bluemtn
119 (99)g/km*
Honda Insight
122 (101)g/km*
MINI Cooper D
125 (104)g/km*
Fiat Panda ECO
143 (119)g/km*
BMW 116i
172 (143)g/km*
Ford Focus 1.6i
189 (157)g/km*
Average new car in the UK
196 (163)g/km*
Dodge Journey
252 (209)g/km*

Mike's calculations take into account the generation of electricity at the power station AND the carbon footprint for extracting and transporting the raw materials to the power stations AND the generation losses between the power station and your electric car AND an amount for decommissioning.

Brilliant!

PS Did you notice that there are large differences between electric cars? In the example above, the Nissan Leaf is emitting 50% more CO2 / km than the Mitsubishi imiev. Wait until the marketing guys catch up with this one!