The cleanest and dirtiest car brands in New Zealand

Tuesday, 9 July 2019

Rolls-Royce is the most expensive car brand you can buy in New Zealand – it's also the most polluting.

Watch: which car brands in NZ have the lowest CO2 average - and which one is the dirtiest?

Latest statistics show they pour by far the most greenhouse gases out of their exhaust systems. Thanks to the fact most models are powered by big 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engines, Rolls-Royces emit an average of 326.1 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre – way above the current national average of 180.7g/km.

The Rolls-Royce CO2 emissions are also more than two and a half times higher than the brand with the lowest emissions from their internal combustion engines. That honour goes to the French marque Citroen with its average of just 122.9g/km.

Citroen's average is largely because most of its vehicles are powered by small capacity turbocharged 1.2-litre three-cylinder engines, which have CO2 emissions as low as 110g/km. There's a big difference in size and fuel consumption between a small triple and a monster V12 – and the CO2 emissions reflect that.

Out of all the traditional car makers, Citroen has the lowest average emissions in the NZ market.

Of course Tesla is the car maker with the lowest average emissions: zero. From the car, at least.

* Luxury-brand customers are paying millions to design their own cars

* Government vehicle emissions data reveals highest and lowest emitters**

Toyota might be a leader in hybrids - but focus on light commercials brings its average CO2 up significantly.

Actually, the car brand currently on sale in NZ with the lowest emissions of all is Tesla, which boasts an unbeatable CO2 output (or non-output?) of 0.0. Obviously that's because they are fully electric, which means the only connection with CO2 these cars might have, would be from what emerges from any gas or coal-fired power stations that generate the electricity in the first place.

Latest statistics gathered by the Motor Industry Association show that the amount of greenhouse gas pouring out of the exhausts of vehicles sold new in NZ is continuing to fall. The research shows that average carbon dioxide emissions are now 180.7 grams of CO2 per kilometre, which represents a 40 per cent reduction over the past 12 years.

This is possibly the only time you will see Great Wall and LDV in the same chart as Rolls-Royce and Ferrari. It's not something they should be proud of.

Passenger vehicles, which include the lightest hatchbacks, are leading the way with their exhaust emissions falling to 146.3g/km. But SUVs and light commercial vehicles including utes are also doing well, reducing their average emissions to 177.6g/km and 214.5g/km respectively.

A comparison of the exhaust emission averages all the 48 vehicle brands currently on sale in NZ shows that the worst CO2 emitters are the big-engined luxury brands and product imported from North America and China.

Small engines and no utes help the lowest polluters stay low.

The cleanest vehicles are the Europeans, small Japanese product, and Japanese and Korean brands with either low-emission engines or hybrids in their vehicle selections.

So which brands are the best – and the worst?

SUVs sneak in under the average thanks to the explosion in sales of small and medium SUVs with smaller engines.

According to a full year of figures from 2018, the brands with the highest CO2 average were Rolls-Royce (326.1g/km), Lamborghini (316.3), Chrysler (302.4), Ferrari (291.4), Bentley (265.5), Aston-Martin (264), Great Wall (256.7), McLaren (249.6), LDV (244.1), Dodge (241.9), and Maserati (236.1). Of course, neither Chrysler nor Dodge are still on sale in New Zealand which, going by their big emission numbers, is probably a good thing.

Meanwhile, the brands with the lowest CO2 average were Citroen (122.9 g/km), Seat (130.2), Suzuki (130.8), Mini (131.9), Skoda (142.5), Peugeot (143.9), MG (147), Fiat (150.4), Honda 152.5), Alfa Romeo (153.3), BMW (159.9), Volvo (160), Lexus (160.1), Audi (160.4), Infiniti (164), Jaguar (169), and Kia 169.6).

It's notable that apart from Peugeot which has a small van called Partner, none of the brands with the lowest average CO2 emissions have any light commercial vehicles in their fleets.

For those that do have the LCVs, there's an obvious impact – and an outstanding example is Toyota.

That company's average CO2 emissions for passenger vehicles is just 133.3 g/km thanks largely to the big selection of petrol-electric hybrids it has in its fleet and which are 30 per cent more economical than standard vehicles. But Toyota's emissions average for its light commercials is 219.9 g/km, which takes the brand's total to 182.7 g/km which is above the national average.

Mazda suffers much the same. Thanks to development of its impressive new SkyActiv engine technology, the CO2 average for its passenger vehicle is a very low 131.5 g/km. But its sole light commercial vehicle, the BT-50 ute, emits 250.3g/km, which takes the brand's average up to 170.1g/km.

So what are all the CO2 averages for the various classes of motor vehicles currently sold new in New Zealand? Here's the list:

All this means that if the NZ consumer wants to play a role in reducing the amount of greenhouse gases motor vehicles pour into the atmosphere – and the global average is reckoned to be around 35 billion tonnes a year – then the best way is to buy electric.

But if purchasing cost or range anxiety prevent a move to EVs, then the obvious alternative is to downsize. Passenger vehicles up to medium-sized all boast CO2 emissions way below the national average. Our new-age SUVs do well, too.

But as for the rest? Well, perhaps as you are driving your very large vehicle you could imagine that New Zealand's clean-green image still exists.

* Comments are now closed on this article.