With regards to the clean-air credentials of latest vehicles, it’s easy, proper? Pure electrics rule, adopted by part-electrics (hybrids), then come pure petrol fashions, with diesels rooted to the underside of the pile as they’re deemed dangerously soiled. That’s roughly the road we’ve been fed – however is it true? 

Perhaps not. Make that in all probability not, if a surprising set of figures I’ve simply seen from a revered, clean-air-obsessed car monitoring and testing organisation is something to go by. So far as I can inform, Inexperienced NCAP actually does know its technical stuff, and seems to exit of its solution to be neutral. It distances itself from car producers and quietly hires the take a look at vehicles it wants from unsuspecting rental corporations, earlier than wheeling the automobiles into impartial laboratories in Britain and 7 different international locations for robust, forensic examination.  

A part of the organisation’s campaign to enhance the air we breathe entails its Clear Air Index (CAI), which is “based mostly on a rating of every pollutant”, and feeds right into a wider, general score. Truthful sufficient. So, of the collection of vehicles examined for the 2021 index, my not-so-brave prediction was pure-electrics would romp residence first, hybrids second, petrol vehicles third, diesels final. Apparent. Just one snag – I used to be horribly incorrect.  

Occupying joint No.1 spot was the Hyundai Nexo (it runs on often-forgotten hydrogen); alongside it was the VW ID.3 (electrical). Thus far, so good. However then got here the primary of a number of shocks: three diesel-engined vehicles – the Skoda Octavia 2.0 TDI, Seat Leon 2.0 TDI and Volvo XC60 4X4 Auto – had the following highest CAI scores (if not one of the best general star rankings). Shock No.2: the Audi A3 Sportback 1.5 TSI Auto (petrol) beat the little Toyota Yaris 1.5 (hybrid). How did it try this? To rub extra salt into Toyota’s wounds, the VW Golf 1.5 TSI (petrol) was forward of the Prius (hybrid) whose CAI was really equivalent to that of the cheaper Skoda Fabia 1.0 TSI (petrol).  

One other colossal discovering was that the Land Rover Discovery Sport D180 2.0 4X4 (diesel) thrashed the Kia Niro 1.6 GDI (hybrid), which solely narrowly beat Citroen’s C3 1.2 PureTech (petrol), Ford’s Kuga 2.0 EcoBlue ST (diesel), the Mazda CX-30 180 (petrol), the BMW 118i and X1 118i (petrol), and Merc’s A 180 d Auto (diesel). It’s one of the best information JLR has had all 12 months.

The underside 5 vehicles and their makers needs to be involved about these reported clean-air failings. The offenders? Fiat Panda 1.2 8v (petrol), Mini Cooper Steptronic (petrol), Dacia Sandero SCE 75 (petrol), Mitsubishi’s Outlander PHEV (plug-in hybrid), Vauxhall’s Corsa 1.2 DI Turbo (petrol), Honda Civic 1.0 Turbo (petrol), and all-time low, the red-faced Hyundai Tucson 1.6 GDI (petrol).    

What now, one other Authorities-sponsored scrappage scheme? Perhaps. However this time round maybe house owners of fashions which acquired poor Inexperienced NCAP scores will probably be incentivised to modify to ‘cleaner’ pure-diesel Skoda Octavias, with larger Clear Air Index scores. Don’t snort. Or cry. In more and more bonkers Blighty, a ‘Scrap Your Hybrid for a Diesel’ marketing campaign may simply occur.

Try the newest on London’s Extremely Low Emissions Zone right here…