Which car websites are the winners – and losers?

27^th of January 2010

Our new research report, published today, reveals all.

Consumers searching on car manufacturer websites will struggle to find out how much CO2 their prospective new car will produce and how much it will cost them to run, says a report published today by the Energy Saving Trust, Friends of the Earth Europe and We Are Futureproof

In an online trial, where 363 participants made nearly 1,000 attempts to find CO2 figures for specific cars on UK car manufacturer websites, only half could successfully find the official CO2 value.

Interestingly, makers of lower carbon vehicles were found to be no more successful in informing users of CO2 information than makers of more polluting vehicles.

Smart, Nissan and Alfa Romeo were found to be worst 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.

Mini, Kia, Lexus and Honda websites were found to be easiest to use.

The average time it takes to find the CO2 information ranged from 74 seconds to nearly 8 minutes

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

The number of mouse clicks also varied widely between websites. Participants used on average just one click to reach the information on Saab's website but clicked an average of 17 times on Alfa Romeo's site before finding a CO2 figure.

The full report can be downloaded from the EST website here: Car CO2 Internet Survey.

Dr Ben Lane, from the Ecolane consultancy, who conducted the research, is presenting the results at a special webinar hosted by the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership today.

We Are Futureproof are not surprised to see that our study showed that some car-makers expect consumers to spend time hunting around confusing websites for fuel efficiency information.

But it also showed that other car-markers have got it right, putting the data up-front and easy to find, and we think all companies should have to follow this model.

The colour energy efficiency labels should be used across all media where cars are advertised and sold

Earlier research by We Are Futureproof and YouGov showed that a fuel economy logo on billboard advertisements doubles the chances of the public correctly identifying emissions. It all adds up to clear case that fuel economy and emissions data needs to be clear and accessible everywhere cars are promoted, including websites.

As well as the EST, 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.”

The full league table of ‘best practice’ (defined using a combination of factors, including participants' views, the time taken to find CO2 information and the number of mouse clicks needed to get to the relevant page) is published by the Guardian today and shown below.

Update: Since our report was launched, Alfa Romeo altered their website, and Nissan added a button for CO2 information on their website.

Read the full Guardian article here.

Download the complete report from the EST website here.