LCVP Webinar reveals which car-makers are making CO2 info easy to find on their websites

Important new research has been revealed this week by We Are Futureproof and our partners in promoting cleaner cars.

At a special ‘webinar’ on Wednesday 27 January, Dr Ben Lane presented the results of his study of car-makers’ websites, showing how well each manufacturer is doing in providing CO2 information to its customers

We Are Futureproof, the Energy Saving Trust and Friends of the Earth Europe have come together to fund Ben’s research, via his consultancy and research company Ecolane.

Sorely needed, we all agreed, because car-makers and advertisers consistently object to rules putting CO2 information on adverts by arguing that consumers would rather use the internet to find out the fuel efficiency of cars.

We’re not convinced by this. Figures on efficiency and emissions can be provided in a few words of text or a simple graphic, both of which are easily included in artwork for ads (and our previous research showed a graphic was much better at conveying the info).

We argue that this data should be included everywhere a car is promoted, including adverts AND websites

New regulations since 2008 mean that CO2 info has to be included on billboard and magazine adverts, and we’ll be reporting on how well advertisers have complied with these soon.

But the regulations don’t yet cover websites. So, the question remains: if the web is the preferred way for car-makers to give us efficiency data,  just how well are they doing?

Ben’s study has looked in depth at how easy the public finds using the websites of all major car manufacturers in the UK.

Seventy-nine volunteers attended research sessions in person and 363 people carried out some very clever online tests, which tracked their mouse clicks and timed them as they tried to find CO2 figures for specific models.

Altogether more than 1,000 interactions with car-makers websites were carried out, making this a robust survey of the current state of things.

The average time taken to find the data ranged from 74 seconds for Lexus to 469 seconds for Alfa Romeo - nearly 8 minutes!

Manufacturers of lower carbon vehicles were found to be no more successful in accurately informing users of their websites of CO2 information than manufacturers of high emission vehicles.  Smart, Nissan and Alfa Romeo were found to be the ‘bottom three’ in terms of accessible carbon emissions data.  These sites tended to have lengthy look-up times in finding CO2 values and over-use of Flash technology and PDF downloads to convey information.

Mini, Kia, Lexus and Honda websites were those that participants found easiest to access CO2 information. The average time taken to find the data ranged from 74 seconds for Lexus to 469 seconds for Alfa Romeo - nearly 8 minutes.

According to Marian Spain, Director of Strategy at the Energy Saving Trust: “Nowadays most people do initial online research when looking into buying a new car. This research shows that in many cases, finding out the running costs of cars and their impact on the environment from the car manufacturer website is like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

“Cars account for one sixth of all the UK’s carbon emissions. The gulf between the most efficient family car and least efficient family car is two tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions and £1,000 a year – that’s worth knowing about. At the same time, even manufacturers of low-carbon cars aren’t making the efficiency of their vehicles at all clear. I want to see the straightforward fuel economy label next to every car model viewed online so people can make informed choices.”

Our call for change is also supported by Consumer Focus. Their spokesperson Lucy Yates told us: “Clearly the car manufacturers have a long way to go if they are to help consumers make greener choices. Only half of consumers were able to find accurate information about a car’s CO2 emissions on the manufacturer’s website.

“The industry must provide clear, credible information as standard so it’s easy for consumers to compare a car’s green credentials.”

While the webinar has now passed, the full research report has been published and is available for download here.

Sian, for We Are Futureproof

Why we should support electric cars

The UK budget is coming around again next week, and as a preview the government announced plans this week to subsidise motorists up to £5000 to encourage them to buy electric or plug-in hybrid cars. We support the move as it sets a long term market shift for the industry which is sorely needed.

“There is a near-global consensus that something has to replace internal combustion engines, which account for 20% of the world’s carbon emissions, and it needs to happen fast. A perfect storm of technology, design and political will suggests 2009 will be the year the electric car begins its takeover in earnest.” (Guardian, 16 April 2009)

To set the context, the car companies are in a real pickle. Through years of poor strategic planning as well as the global economic decline, many find themselves struggling to stay alive.  On top of that there is a limited reserve of oil and so they simply have to change from the internal combustion engine design. Then there is climate change - the UK government has to reduce CO2 emissions quite dramatically (about 22% of the UK’s carbon emissions come from transport, with 13% of these from private cars). And on top of that the UK has to meet air quality standards for PM10 and NOx (currently the government is in breach of EU limits). The only solution available so far to address all three is to create a giant shift in the design and promotion of cars to electric vehicles.

And judging on how long it takes car makers to alter course, we need to start that change now. Luckily there are several models being put into production already - The Tesla Roadster & the Chevy Volt being two examples.

“Having a lot of batteries plugged into the grid would help the grid with ‘balancing’ the intermittancy of having lots more renewables plugged into it. We have far more wind, tide and wave potential in the UK than we need, but not at the right time, so finding storage is an issue, and having cars plugged in, to be charged when we have spare juice and serve as a buffer when we are short could potentially be a major benefit.” (Sian Berry, Sky news debate, April 2009)

While there are many criticisms of electric cars, including hydrogen and battery technology, incentives like the one proposed by the government are helping to promote innovation in the technologies. In the field of batteries alone there is a spectrum of new solutions, from battery ’service stations’ (Project Better Place) to break throughs in design (new bateries that charge in seconds, not hours).

Blake, for We Are Futureproof

Fivers for drivers

Today, in their first public appearance, members of We Are Futureproof handed out free money to car drivers at a central London petrol station.

Activists wearing Geoff Hoon masks, holding a briefcase full of (fake) money, and waving wads of fivers enticed car drivers into the petrol station, where they explained how the forthcoming legislation could radically lower the emissions from their cars and the cost of their fuel bills.  Once the drivers signed one of our specially mocked-up ‘fiver’ postcards, we handed over a crisp new five pound note.  The ‘fiver’ postcards, featuring Geoff Hoon wearing a tiara, will be sent to the Transport Secretary to encourage him to support tough standards for new cars.