Did anyone read an article on the Daily Telegraph website today which suggested it was more green to keep a diesel car than to buy a new car? If so did the item validate the proposition in your your view please? I don't want to subscribe to to find out...
I didn't read that article but I have read lots of other sources especially when I was actively considering getting an EV. One article I did see recently was a chap who had a 19 year old Saab and he asked whether it would be "greener" to retain that car rather than buying a new EV. His argument was that there are a lot of embodied emissions in any car, indeed slightly more in an EV. By purchasing a new car he would be effectively bringing a new car into the world (or contributing to the demand for such cars) and it would take many years for the embodied emissions to be paid down as it were. The EV expert he was talking to reached the entirely sensible conclusion that it all depended on how many miles the old car was doing. In this case it was only 3,000 a year so the argument for keeping the Saab was solid in his view. If he was doing an average mileage, say 9,000 per annum, the calculation might be different.
Embodied emissions is a disputed area. Mike Berners Lee makes the case that embodied emissions are frequently underestimated and that the CO2 impact of bringing a new vehicle - EV or ICE - is often underestimated because only factory emissions are taken into account but bringing a new car to market involves everything from mining the iron to the bosses company mobile phone.
I take the view that my mileage of 2,000 per annum (or thereabouts) in a small, newish petrol car makes any argument for me buying a new EV on environmental grounds null and void.
Old diesels are a different matter on air quality grounds.
