Green Driving and green cars are this weeks’ focus for a lot of the media. In part this is because the German Frankfurt Car show is now on but more than anything it is because Hybrid and electric vehicles are becoming more and more part of the make up of transport in the UK.
Slowly but surely we are seeing more Smart cars and Toyota Prius on the streets. However one thing manufacturers must look out for is being clear in their environmental claims.
Last week the Guardian journalist Fred Pearce questioned the ‘green’ claims being made by BMW for their new X6. He observed the “The ActiveHybrid X6's official CO2 emissions rating with the European Union is 231 grams per kilometre. That compares badly with the EU's 2012 target for average emissions from new cars of 120 grams. It is also higher than the emissions from most of the new Lexus hybrid range and more than twice the emissions of a Toyota Prius, for instance”. So the focus needs to be on clearly commuting the improvements in the technology and what it does in real terms for reducing CO2.
On the Today Programme on BBC radio 4 they continued with the automotive theme with an interview with Dr Peter Wells, of the Centre for Automotive Research at Cardiff Business School. Wells was discussing how for decades, the motor industry has been promising that electric motoring is just around the corner but there were still some key challenges to sort out – namely in the area of battery life and the cost to the consumers. Once these are solved he predicts the market growing fast with quicker consumer uptake.
Charging Points
The Energy Technologies Institute outlined their development plan to have charging points for electric and hybrid cars across the UK. Nine cities and towns in the UK are to have charging points for electric and hybrid fuelled vehicles under an £11m development plan. Birmingham, Coventry, Glasgow, London, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Oxford, Newcastle and Sunderland will be the first to benefit from the scheme.
This scheme will be welcomed by the industry and the public as a lack of charging points has been one of the main blocking points to the roll out in the UK. There is a huge need to focus on the charging points to ensure that the public can start using hybrid and electric cars quicker.
If the public can only charge up at home and then find it challenging to find a charging spots in towns and cites, when they are out shopping or at work it just acts as barrier to people starting to take up the electric and hybrid cars.
London mayor Boris Johnson commenting on the scheme, said: "Moving to using electric vehicles which emit zero pollution will have a major impact on cutting carbon emissions, improving air quality and reducing noise pollution.
"I want to make it much easier to go electric which is why in London we are planning to roll out 25,000 charging points.
"So I'm delighted that the capital is part of the joined cities network helping to speed up the electric revolution across the country."
Taylor Keogh Communications Public Affairs and PR for the Energy Industry
Slowly but surely we are seeing more Smart cars and Toyota Prius on the streets. However one thing manufacturers must look out for is being clear in their environmental claims.
Last week the Guardian journalist Fred Pearce questioned the ‘green’ claims being made by BMW for their new X6. He observed the “The ActiveHybrid X6's official CO2 emissions rating with the European Union is 231 grams per kilometre. That compares badly with the EU's 2012 target for average emissions from new cars of 120 grams. It is also higher than the emissions from most of the new Lexus hybrid range and more than twice the emissions of a Toyota Prius, for instance”. So the focus needs to be on clearly commuting the improvements in the technology and what it does in real terms for reducing CO2.
On the Today Programme on BBC radio 4 they continued with the automotive theme with an interview with Dr Peter Wells, of the Centre for Automotive Research at Cardiff Business School. Wells was discussing how for decades, the motor industry has been promising that electric motoring is just around the corner but there were still some key challenges to sort out – namely in the area of battery life and the cost to the consumers. Once these are solved he predicts the market growing fast with quicker consumer uptake.
Charging Points
The Energy Technologies Institute outlined their development plan to have charging points for electric and hybrid cars across the UK. Nine cities and towns in the UK are to have charging points for electric and hybrid fuelled vehicles under an £11m development plan. Birmingham, Coventry, Glasgow, London, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Oxford, Newcastle and Sunderland will be the first to benefit from the scheme.
This scheme will be welcomed by the industry and the public as a lack of charging points has been one of the main blocking points to the roll out in the UK. There is a huge need to focus on the charging points to ensure that the public can start using hybrid and electric cars quicker.
If the public can only charge up at home and then find it challenging to find a charging spots in towns and cites, when they are out shopping or at work it just acts as barrier to people starting to take up the electric and hybrid cars.
London mayor Boris Johnson commenting on the scheme, said: "Moving to using electric vehicles which emit zero pollution will have a major impact on cutting carbon emissions, improving air quality and reducing noise pollution.
"I want to make it much easier to go electric which is why in London we are planning to roll out 25,000 charging points.
"So I'm delighted that the capital is part of the joined cities network helping to speed up the electric revolution across the country."
Taylor Keogh Communications Public Affairs and PR for the Energy Industry
