Friday, September 01, 2017

How green is my 'Leaf'?

Following my partial retirement, I'm down to three days a week except when I have to cover for holidays.  The way fares have changed in the last few years means that I am paying the same for the bus as I was before.  The journeys are getting worse - longer and less comfortable. The buses more crowded, and the delays this summer have been at the top end of the delays I have ever experienced.  My average time to home as increased to above an hour. So I'm looking for a car.
I'd like one that is at least as environmentally friendly as a bus.  Our buses use bio-diesel, and diesel is not nearly as bad a polluter in large engines as it is in small ones. So, I'm looking for a hybrid (preferably a plug in), or an all electric. So where to go?
We looked at a Hyundai first a very nice car, but the Ioniq has really poor rear visibility.  We also looked at the i10, a very nice small car, although there are no hybrid options, it may turn out the patrol is the way to go.
Other cars we have looked at:
Mini - too claustrophobic for Jo
Micra - too claustrophobic for me (looks too big, feels too small - that's the wrong way round!)
While looking at the Micra we spotted the Leaf, and were offered an extended test drive.  They gave us the car for 4 days.  It's a lovely car to drive, very stable, very smooth, very predictable and above all very very quiet.  It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of other similar cars, that's not really an issue for me.  The price is though, and it is relatively expensive - even with the government 'donation'.  The range between charges is about 130 miles, less than half of the equivalent petrol car.  Not an issue for the commute.  It charged up by being plugged in for about 2 hours on the last day, when the usage was reasonably close to the way I expect to use it.
My question though, is just how 'green' is it.  How much pollution (or at least CO2, there are lots of other pollutants to worry about) is generated by its construction.  Obviously there is next to none after that, and what there is can largely be controlled by choosing a green Electricity tariff.  It cannot be worse than petrol.
Where do I find these answers?

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