Safety rating organisation Euro NCAP has launched a new green car assessment programme called Green NCAP in conjunction with European Governments, motoring clubs and other organisations.

It aims to promote cars that are less polluting and more fuel- and energy-efficient by providing consumers with independent information about cars’ performance in tests that go well beyond legislative requirements to uncover the differences between manufacturers’ emissions-control strategies.

With members and independent test laboratories in eight European countries, Green NCAP aims to motivate car manufacturers to develop cars that make the most efficient use of the energy they use and to minimise the pollutant and greenhouse gases they emit.

For now, Green NCAP considers only the energy used while driving (‘tank to wheel’), but in time, well-to-wheel and ultimately the whole life-cycle will be considered, including the energy used to produce the vehicle, the energy it consumes in its lifetime and the energy needed to scrap and recycle its parts.

Pierre Castaing, chairman of Euro NCAP, said,

“For years, there has been a mismatch between the way cars perform in regulatory tests and how they perform on the road. Consumers often don’t get the fuel economy officially claimed for their vehicles and end up paying for the difference in fuel. Now, legislation is tightening-up, but consumer testing can complement it and go a step further: it can really encourage car manufacturers to beat their competitors by innovating in the field of energy efficiency and emission reduction. We’re confident that they will respond to the challenge, to the benefit of car-buyers and the environment.”

In Green NCAP’s first round of tests, twelve cars have been rated: the Hyundai Ioniq and BMW i3, both electric vehicles, achieve a maximum five-star rating; the VW up! GTI gets a creditable four stars; BMW’s X1 2.0d and the Mercedes-Benz A200 are both awarded three stars; the Ford Fiesta 1.0 EcoBoost is rated as two stars in its latest guise, and a one-star rating is given to the Audi A7 50 TDI, the Volvo XC40 T5 and the Subaru Outback 2.5. Three cars – the VW Golf 1.6TDI, the FIAT Panda 1.0 and the previous level Ford Fiesta 1.0 EcoBoost – get zero-star ratings. All three of the zero-star cars are approved to Euro 6b emissions standards, still valid for models introduced before September 2017. However, from September 2019, all cars will have to meet the tougher standards of Euro 6d-temp and updated versions of these cars will be rated in the next round of tests.

Read more: Fleet News

Millions die each year from dirty air. The trauma of a 9-year-old London girl may bring the dangers home.

LONDON — Dirty air kills millions of people around the world every year, but it can be hard to put a face on a danger so vast. Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah is fighting to do just that. The face she has in mind is her daughter’s.

Ella Kissi-Debrah was 9 when she died in 2013, after three years of asthma attacks so bad, they sometimes triggered seizures. In photos, her smile is broad and bright, her hair braided. She loved music and swimming, and dreamed of becoming a pilot.

Ella lived with her family just off London’s South Circular Road, a major thoroughfare that is clouded by the diesel fumes that make London’s air — like much of Europe’s — thick and foul-smelling. A scientist’s analysis found that many of her hospitalizations coincided with local pollution spikes.

Now Ms. Adoo-Kissi-Debrah wants to put air pollution on Ella’s death certificate. On Jan. 11, the top legal adviser for England and Wales, Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, backed her application for a new inquest, and this week, her lawyer plans to petition the High Court to authorize it.

The coroner who originally investigated Ella’s death ruled she had died of acute respiratory failure, but made no mention of pollution. Ms. Adoo-Kissi-Debrah did not know then what diesel fumes can do to young lungs. It was more than a year after Ella’s death that she first learned dirty air is a known asthma trigger. “It was like putting a picture together” as it finally began to make sense, she told me.

Air pollution has never appeared on a British death certificate, said Ms. Adoo-Kissi-Debrah’s lawyer, Jocelyn Cockburn. If a new coroner amends Ella’s to note its role, he or she could also demand that the government take action to prevent future deaths. And the moral and political repercussions could be even wider.

This grieving mother’s fight holds a power far greater than its potential to clarify the cause of one family’s tragedy. It’s bigger than just London and Britain, too. In demanding that dirty air be written into the official record as having contributed to her loss, Ms. Adoo-Kissi-Debrah wants to force us all to recognize a danger that is all around us, but which we have long chosen to ignore.

Read more: NY Times

EVs emit less lifetime CO2 than cars with internal combustion engines, even in countries reliant on coal for electricity generation

Electric vehicles (EVs) are better for the environment than internal combustion engine (ICE) models even when charged up with electricity generated by coal-fired power stations, according to new research.

Data from BloombergNEF (BNEF) shows CO2 emissions from EVs were about 40 per cent lower than those from ICE models in 2018. Furthermore, the UK saw the biggest difference in emissions between the two categories of car due to its large renewable energy industry.

Even in countries like China, which are more reliant on coal-fired electricity, EVs were still found to be cleaner than ICE cars from the points of view of CO2 emissions.

The research helps clarify some of the details surrounding the lifetime emissions of EVs, which don’t pollute on the road but do consume electricity that’s often generated by fossil fuels.

As a result of the data, BNEF predicts EVs will become cleaner in the future as utilities companies ditch coal plants in favour of renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar farms.

Read more: Auto Express