06 Aug 07
How far will it take you?
Cars don't kill the planet, people do. This new twist on the old gun-lobbyist's maxim was emphatically proven when I managed to get a humble but heavily monitored Ford S-Max to pollute as badly as a Porsche Cayenne S. All I did was drive normally.
The BP Ultimate Green Driving Test, carried out around the various tracks at the Millbrook proving ground in Bedfordshire, was set up to demonstrate that it's often the driver and not the car that has the greatest effect on fuel consumption. It succeeded.
A professional driver took the 2.0-litre petrol S-Max round an eight-mile course, aiming to be as economical as possible. He managed 34.0mpg and a CO2 figure of 191g/km, just beating the official figures.
So much depends on how you drive
Rigged up with the same high-tech equipment to record speed, distance and economy to an ultra-precise degree, the S-Max is handed over to me. I've just driven up the M1 from London, and without changing my driving style in any way I attack the route with its mix of city driving, hills and dual carriageways. So how did I do? The computer reveals the stark figures: 19.8mpg and 328g/km of CO2. Almost exactly the same as the official figures for a Porsche Cayenne S.
Over eight miles I've taken a four-cylinder people carrier and turned it into a gas-gulping V8 SUV, environmentally speaking. Multiply the difference over 10,000 miles and I'll have spent an extra £921 a year on fuel and sent another 2.2 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. Enough to half fill a hot air balloon. I knew I could drive more economically, but I didn't think I was that bad. After all, it's how I normally drive. I needed help.
