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Vehicle choice can reduce the impact of the car on the environment. The manufacture of new vehicles takes considerable material and energy resources (click here for more details). Some car manufacturers, such as Toyota, are now increasingly giving out environmental information about their vehicles and manufacturing processes, but there is (as yet) no formal independent guide or grading scheme to guide drivers to the most environmentally friendly manufactured vehicle.
The more important
criteria is to choose the smallest and most fuel-efficient vehicle possible.
This will also saves money in road tax and other running costs. Look for one
with the lowest CO2 emissions of its class and which meets the new
Euro IV standard. Alternative-fuelled vehicles such as the new fuel hybrids
(petrol/electric etc) and those running on LPG or Biodiesel also reduce the
carbon impact on the environment.
Work has been done to look at the viability of eco-labelling for new cars. From July of 2005, many manufacturers switched to the new style "Comparative" label that shows the applicable VED band for the car, the CO2 figure and estimated annual running costs for the vehicle. The label is intended to be familiar to consumers as it mirrors important aspects of the design and colour-coding of the energy efficiency labels that now appears on most 'white goods', such as refrigerators.
Information about vehicle emissions is easily available through the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) website which can help guide new or used car purchase or via the new DfT carbon calculator.
It may be that in
future, the environmental rating of a vehicle could encompass the whole impact
of the vehicle through a process known as life cycle assessment. Life cycle
assessment (LCA) is a tool which evaluates the environmental impacts of a
system (process) involved in production of a product across all stages in a
life cycle, i.e. from cradle to grave. LCA is a time consuming process and
there is some way to go in perfecting the methodology, but some car
manufacturers have already started using LCA in certain areas of manufacture.
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