Will Green Cars Always Sound Boring?

There's an ever increasing number of green cars on our roads, with a recent surge in available electric vehicles further emphasising this. Electric vehicles are fast becoming a realistic option for urban drivers, offering improved range and useful performance whilst producing zero emissions from their tailpipes. But it would be hard to argue that these cars sound at all sexy, so are future drivers doomed to a near silent future of whining electric motors?

How would you define the word green? Not the colour, but the treehugging, beard growing environmentalist's word. Well according to a reliable source (ehem..Wikipedia), green is defined as something that inflicts "reduced, minimal, or no harm at all upon ecosystems or the environment". So with this in mind, how about defining a 'green car'? You may say something like a car that produces close to zero emissions, something quiet and maybe something slow? You'd probably steer clear of saying something exciting like a 12 cylinder Pagani Zonda or V10 BMW M5, because they scare sheep and spit fire. Green cars sound a bit boring then, don't they? But surely there exist some fun green cars...

Combustion engines aren't very green, especially when they spit fire

To explore this we'd first have to understand what fun is, in the driving sense of course. There are many components to a fun drive, but I'd be confident in saying that in almost all circumstances said fun car will at least make a nice noise. Something like a Porsche Carrera GT would do, or even the screaming VTEC engine of a Honda S2000. In all of my favourite sounding cars, there's a key component that brings a wry smile to my face, it's called the combustion engine.

Well we're all familiar with hybrid vehicles, which utilise both a combustion engine and an electric motor to provide power. They are often referred to as green due to their reduced emissions and improved efficiency, and they also retain an engine so don't lose touch with conventional car characteristics. So hybrids must be examples of potentially fun, and at least slightly green cars. Case closed...

La Ferrari - a hybrid that's not even trying to be green

Unfortunately it's not so simple, as the prosecution has a new piece of evidence against those 'green' hybrids. Take the latest generation of hypercars from Ferrari, McLaren and Porsche for example. Each come fitted with energy recovery systems and hybrid motors, helping to improve performance without increasing emissions. But since each car still requires the ignition of nature's oil in a dozen or so cylinders, they can hardly be called green. And to remove any strands of green that did remain on the Ferrari, the company's Chairman, Luca De Montezemolo admitted that their hybrid motor was fitted purely to boost performance rather than reduce emissions. Not very environmental of them then!

So that brings us back to the definition of green cars. Those that argue only zero emission cars can be called green, may turn our attention to completely electric vehicles. There are quite a few of these on the market at the moment, a popular example of which is the Nissan Leaf. But the Nissan Leaf, well, isn't exactly exciting. Yes it has some clever electric wizardry, but I doubt the lack of emotive sounds will be able to please the caravan burning Top Gear generation.

The electric Lola-Drayson doesn't look so boring, does it?

Nevertheless, there are now electric cars that are built purely to go racing...and racing cars are fun. The electric powered Lola-Drayson B12/69EV currently being developed by entrepreneur Paul Drayson is a great example of a fast electric vehicle. It produces zero emissions yet is still able to reach 200mph, matching the performance of it's combustion engined rivals in the Le Mans 24hours where it'll be competing this year. Plus with the introduction of a new international electric vehicle racing championship called Formula E, we will soon have a fully fledged series of fast electric cars racing wheel to wheel throughout the year.

Great then, we've found our fun green vehicles. Or have we? There's still that one thing that these electric racers can never bring to driving, and that's of course noise. They do make a noise, but it's closer to that of your washing machine then a brutal GT racer. It seems electric cars will always be fighting a losing battle, as combustion engines tend to our primitive needs. Fire, aggression and a feeling of power are all associated with high performance engines, exciting our inner caveman when behind the wheel.

A hydrogen V12? Why not!

So what does the future hold for fun driving? Are we destined to face country sprints with a noise resembling a kitchen appliance to disappoint our ears? Not necessarily. Electric motors are not the only completely green source of power. Hydrogen, a very real option for the future, is constantly being pushed towards becoming a viable solution to providing power in mass produced vehicles. Plus hydrogen requires a combustion engine, meaning we can have our V8s back. Instead of fire though, these V8s would be more likely to spit bubbles thanks to producing nothing more than H2O at the tailpipes. How very green!

Now this being said, we shouldn't discourage the increase of electric cars on sale today, since they are a fantastic solution to urban transport issues. Although, I think it is also fair to say that many of us will be hoping hydrogen will one day be a practical solution, because as much as I'm all for a sustainable future, one without pops and bangs and bouncing rev limits just doesn't sound fun.

Hybrid Vehicles - Sustainably Unsustainable?

Hybrid electric vehicles are beginning to flex their green muscle in the face of conventional pure combustion engines. But are these popular hybrid muscles tarnished with a lesser known, unsustainable truth?

You don't have to be an motoring expert to acknowledge that sales of hybrid vehicles have increased significantly in recent years. Not only are there noticeably more manufacturers bragging about efficiency and reducing CO2 numbers, but there is also a substantial increase of vehicles circulating on our roads with electronic assistance. This increase is no more clear than in the US, the world's biggest consumer of hybrid electric vehicles, where sales of hybrids now contribute to almost 3% of all new car sales. This figure may seem insignificant, but in reality this represents over 322,000 sales in 2012 to date, an increase of over a quarter of a million annual car sales when compared to a decade ago. 

One reason for this increase can be attributed to the obvious expansion of hybrid vehicles available to buy. UK buyers are now faced with a large range of hybrid offerings, ranging from small hatchbacks, to 4x4s and now even supercars (Ferrari's F150 is the latest example of this). Focusing on the more affordable end of that spectrum, if we were to look back to the dawn of mass produced hybrid vehicles, we'd see some rather ugly attempts at futuristic design combined with poor quality interiors and sluggish performance. Thankfully, the case now is very different, and the market offers some more fashionable lookers that manage to hide their electric talents under the bonnet. These talents are also another major pull factor for drivers as they can represent massive savings in running costs.

If we ignore some rather astronomical figures achieved by 'hypermilers', who we can assume did little more than flex their little toe to accelerate, Honda's Insight hybrid can achieve an impressive 61mpg from it's electronically assisted 1.3 litre engine. It also still manages to reach 60mph in a whisker over 12 seconds, making it more than useful for the average journey. These impressive headline figures are matched by low tax brackets, with many hybrids sitting firmly under the tax exemption line of 100g of CO2/km.

Honda Insight

So surely hybrid electric vehicles have provided us with a fantastic push towards sustainable motoring, by  reducing emissions and improving efficiency in our road cars? You'd like to think so, but delving deeper into the workings of a hybrid electric motor, it becomes clear that there exist several sustainability issues. These issues could mean that in some ways, the hybrid vehicle is actually more costly to the environment than it's pure combustion engine predecessors.

These hybrid issues come in the form of rare earth metal; neodymium to be precise. Hybrid electric vehicle motors found in Honda's Insight and the worlds best selling hybrid, the Toyota Prius, require neodymium magnets to ensure they remain light and therefore as efficient as possible. But there's a catch; much like coal and oil, neodymium is a finite resource, meaning it will run out. Unlike coal and oil however, it won't last for another century. Neodymium demand is expected to exceed supply within the decade, and as a result it's extraction is becoming evermore desperate.

One of the world's biggest suppliers of neodymium is China. Locals outside the city of Baotou, close to plants processing rare earth metals such as neodymium, have watched their lake dry up and farmland deteriorate. This is due to the processes required to extract and process rare earth metals, generating radioactive waste and acidic water. It's no surprise to hear that much of the area's population have experienced ill health as a result, with cancer rates souring and life expectancy decreasing. This grim truth is a far cry from the futuristic, green credentials of hybrid car sales in the Western world. Perhaps one of the most horrid realities is the lack of knowledge of these issues from hybrid car buyers. Attracted by headline figures, and sometimes with good will to lower their contribution to automotive pollution, drivers can be innocently contributing to the destruction of distant landscapes and afar communities.

Lake turned radioactive wasteland in Baotou, China

Nevertheless, there is still hope; 2012 brought with it the news that Toyota has been developing a new 'induction' type electric motor that does away with the requirement for neodymium magnets. With it reductions to weight and cost could improve efficiency further. And remember, Toyota is the world's biggest seller of hybrid vehicles, therefore this could have a colossal influence upon the future of hybrid and even fully electric cars. But for now, only time will tell if the hybrid car can remove the shackles of rare earth metals, because as it stands they represent a substantial barrier to efforts for a more sustainable automotive future.