Are you on the road to sustainable motoring?

from Greener Living | Spring 2023

Take small actions – see big results!

By Brian Byrne

FOR sustainability in cars the buzzword has become electromobility. Not just pure electric vehicles, but all powertrains that use electric energy in some form or other to reduce the environmental effects of internal combustion engines – mostly as hybrids, thanks to the original innovation by Toyota with the Prius from way back. Every major carmaker now offers, in addition to a growing catalogue of electric cars, hybrid with everything.

Personal automotive transportation can never be the most sustainable form of moving people around. But for many it’s still the best we have. Electrification has helped mitigate automotive emissions that are part of pumping up the planet’s temperature and global climate but there are arguments about the environmental costs of actually producing cars.

The truly pure option is walking or cycling, both good for health and the environment — but not so much for commuting to and from the work that allows us to be productive and sustains families, communities and countries. We have to be realistic, especially for those who don’t have the benefit of decent public transport where they live. The personal car is going to be around for a long time yet.

Sustainability is complicated

As individual motorists we can do things to ease the burden on the planet. We can think before we drive, ask whether the journey actually requires the car or could be reasonably done on foot or on the bike? We can also choose the kind of car that matches both our family life needs and a minimised carbon cost. That might mean an EV is not the best choice, for instance. Sustainability is complicated, balancing cost, capability and environmental impact. Everybody has to do their own sums, and the reality for most of us is that we won’t be able to afford the ideal option. A straightforward petrolpowered car might be the only affordable choice, especially in small cars where price sensitivity doesn’t allow for viable electrification.

To hopefully help in some way, here’s a Rough Guide to some of the most popular electrified cars on the Irish market.

Pure electric

Let’s go pure electric first. Volkswagen were the 2022 brand leader here, with their ID.4 (from €44,343) and ID.3 (€42,212) models being first and fifth respectively in the top five EV registrations.

Hyundai were next with their Ioniq 5 (€40,995), then Tesla with the Model 3 (€44,990), and finally Kia’s EV6 (€54,300). All of those are at the high end in price, reflecting that electric car motoring is still a preserve of the better off.

Smaller penetrations of individual models at the middle-lower ranges – where Nissan’s pioneering Leaf (€28,145), Renault’s new Megane E-Tech Electric (€37,495), and the Stellantis Group’s Opel, Peugeot, Citroen and DS small EVs (ranging €31,995€43,562 upwards) are all sparking – are tempered by ICE options as well as a bigger percentage cost difference among those offering ICE versions against their EV variants.

Hybrid

In the petrol-hybrid arena, Toyota is not unexpectedly king of the road. Apart from their smallest Aygo, the carmaker offers a hybrid version of all their passenger cars and they dominated the top five hybrid models in 2022, with Corolla (€34,415), C-HR (€34,065), RAV 4 (€42,015), Yaris Cross (€29,700) and Yaris (€27,990) taking the slots (and one of that last was my own purchase, make of which what you may).

In brand terms Ford came next, their Kuga being the only selfcharging hybrid in their catalogue, followed by Hyundai with Tucson (€40,245) and Kona (€32,545) as the next best sellers.

Plug-in hybrid

There’s a substantial upmarket shift in the plug-in hybrid space, not surprising as adding this electrification element is an expensive extra technology. It is also where premium brands tend to go rather than provide self-charging hybrid, because their margins allow higher profits if they do. So BMW topped the brand PHEV sales in Ireland last year, their X5 (€87,685) and 3 Series (€54,995) collectively taking that podium spot from Hyundai. But Korean companion brands Hyundai and Kia dominated the top five PHEV models, with Tucson (€43,945), Sorento (€56,500) and Santa Fe (€57,945) taking first, third and fourth places respectively, and Volvo filling the fifth space with their XC60 (€72,595).

Now driving well into 2023, the pure EV options number around 25, with models available, apart from brands already mentioned, from BMW, Skoda, Toyota, Cupra, Porsche, MG, Audi, Mini, and Mercedes-Benz.

For those looking towards self-charging hybrids, in addition to those I have mentioned there are also models from Lexus, Suzuki and Jeep.

And PHEV offers apart from brands already mentioned are available from Mercedes-Benz, Kia, Ford, Lexus, Porsche, Range Rover, Mazda, Audi, Stellantis Group brands, Volkswagen and Mini.

My brief for this sustainability piece was to provide some direction on the electrified cars available from among the rest of the pack. As you can see, because almost all carmakers are now more or less in the space, it might have been easier to look at those who aren’t. It would have been a much shorter piece.