You can reduce your car emissions in several ways. Continue reading this article to learn more about these.

1. Have Your Car Serviced Regularly

Servicing your car (particularly the engine) regularly will help ensure that it always runs in tip-top condition while burning fuel as efficiently as possible. Follow the instructions stated in your owner’s manual and ensure you keep up with the scheduled oil changes and other maintenance procedures.

Note that newer vehicle models have more complicated emission systems to keep them running as green as possible. Should any of the parts or components of the system malfunction, your car will start to produce more emissions than it usually does. Check the engine light on the dashboard as it can tell if there’s something wrong with it. If it does, bring your car to a reputable automotive technician as soon as possible to get it fixed.

Likewise, don’t forget to keep the tires inflated properly because they can help your car run more effortlessly so it can burn less fuel. You may refer to your owner’s manual for the proper tire pressure procedure.

2. Use Premium Fuel

Although premium fuel is more expensive, they are designed to reduce car emissions while keeping the engine clean and protected at the same time.

Premium fuel also has active cleaning agents that remove dirt from the engine, allowing it to improve your car’s fuel efficiency and reduce emissions. You may even notice improved performance in your car when using premium fuel. However, results usually depend on the vehicle’s make, model, mileage, and age. Try filling up your car with premium fuel three to four times and check if you can see any difference.

It’s easy to identify premium fuels as they usually come with names such as ‘premium,’ ‘ultimate,’ and others to go along with symbols like ‘+’. Although they may be more expensive, you sure get the quality you deserve from them.

3. Reduce Vehicle Idling

Idling is when you leave a car’s engine on, even though it’s not moving. Doing this leads to unnecessary emissions and fuel consumption. If you reduce the time your vehicle sits in idle mode, you are doing a great job of cutting down hazardous emissions and improving air quality.

However, some motorists believe that turning the engine on and off can cause harm and hinder its performance even though they didn’t get the facts straight.  As a result, they prefer to let it idle when warming up the engine, especially during colder days or when parked.

Turning off the car while waiting for someone may seem irrelevant or mundane, but it can impact your car’s emissions in a big way. Thus, avoid idling your vehicle, especially if the wait time is more than a minute.

4. Change Your Driving Habits

Your driving style or habit is also responsible for car emissions. For instance, constant braking and acceleration cause the engine to consume more fuel unlike when cruising at a steady speed. Hence, you get more mileage when driving on highways than when you’re in heavy traffic. That’s why driving at steady speeds is essential at all times. Less fuel consumption means less emissions and pollution to the environment.

Besides, the more you accelerate, the more the engine burns fuel and more emissions. So, step on the accelerator lightly for a steady acceleration instead of stepping on the gas pedal aggressively every time you start moving.

You should also have a steady rather than abrupt braking. If you see a red light or any stop sign ahead, remove your foot from the pedal slowly and let the speed drop on its own before applying the brakes for a complete stop. This will allow you to cover more distance while minimising fuel consumption.

Bottom Line

With global warming becoming a growing concern each day, reducing car emissions is vital for our planet’s future. Keeping your car fuel-efficient and driving more slowly reduce emissions. A properly inflated tire can also reduce exhaust emissions by a significant amount. Additionally, drivers should avoid idling their cars when possible.

Car emissions are a major contributor to global warming. They are harmful to human health and produce greenhouse gases. By-products of fuel combustion include hydrocarbons, benzene, and formaldehyde, which are known to affect climate change.

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A study in June 2019, by the IFO think tank in Munich found that electric vehicles in Germany emit 11 percent to 28 percent more carbon dioxide than their diesel counterparts.

The study considered the production of batteries as well as the German electricity mix in making this determination.

German Subsidies

Germany spent thousands of euros on electric car subsidies per vehicle to put a million electric vehicles on the road, but those subsidies have done nothing to reach the country’s greenhouse gas emission targets. This is just the latest example of government programs expecting one outcome and getting quite another, instead. To some it is ironic; to others it is funny. At IER, we believe it to be sad, as it is a waste of time and money that could be better put to use solving real problems.

The researchers compared the carbon dioxide output for a Tesla Model 3 (electric) and a Mercedes C220d sedan (diesel). The Mercedes releases about 141 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer driven, including the carbon emitted to drill, refine, and transport its fuel. The Tesla releases between 156 and 181 grams, including battery production.

Mining and processing the lithium, cobalt, and manganese used for batteries consume a lot of energy. A Tesla Model 3 battery, for example, represents between 11 and 15 metric tons of carbon dioxide. Given a battery lifetime of 10 years and an annual travel distance of 15,000 kilometers, 73 to 98 grams of carbon dioxide are emitted per kilometer.

Germany’s growing reliance on coal for electricity generation was also considered in the study. The country relies on coal when the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shining. As a result, charging a Tesla in Bavaria releases about 83 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer driven.

The European Union also provides benefits for manufacturers of electric vehicles, by allowing them to claim zero emissions under its strict emissions limits. Not all European countries may emit more carbon dioxide from electric vehicles than from diesel or gasoline vehicles, however. In France, for example, electric vehicles may emit less carbon dioxide than diesel vehicles because France gets the majority of its electricity from nuclear power. But in many other European countries, that is certainly not the case.

Other Alternatives         

According to the German researchers, the European Union target of 59 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer by 2030 corresponds to a “technically unrealistic” consumption of 2.2 liters of diesel or 2.6 liters of gasoline per 100 kilometers. The researchers believe it would be preferable to look at other sources of power for automobiles—for example, methane engines, “whose emissions are one-third less than those of diesel motors.”

Other Studies

A study in 2017 by researchers at the University of Michigan found that the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by electric cars varied wildly by country. The study found that an electric car recharged by a coal-fired plant produces as much carbon dioxide as a gasoline-powered car that gets 29 miles per gallon, which is a slightly higher efficiency than the 25.2 miles per gallon that is the average of all the cars, SUVs, vans, and light trucks sold in the United States over the past year. If the electricity comes from a natural gas plant, recharging a plug-in electric vehicle is akin to driving a car that gets 58 miles per gallon.

Using the U.S. electricity mix, which is generated mainly be fossil fuels (about 64 percent), the researchers at the University of Michigan found that the average plug-in vehicle produces as much carbon dioxide as a conventional car that gets 55.4 miles per gallon. In China, which has been pushing widespread adoption of electric vehicles, the cars emit as much carbon dioxide as a car that gets 40 miles per gallon, due in large part to their heavy dependence on coal.

Note that the above findings are optimistic for electric vehicles because the researchers at the University of Michigan did not take into account the additional substantial carbon dioxide emissions in manufacturing batteries, as did the German study.

A different study from the Union of Concerned Scientists found that, depending on the type of plug-in being built, manufacturing a battery-powered car generates 15 percent to 68 percent more carbon dioxide emissions than a conventional gasoline-powered car because of the energy intensity of manufacturing batteries.

Conclusion

The above studies indicate that the terminology “zero emission” is a misnomer when referring to electric vehicles. Also, lawmakers should be cautious about subsidizing electric vehicles when their electricity is generated mainly by fossil fuels because they are not lowering the carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles by doing so. The old saying that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” may well apply to many of the gimmicks and work-arounds advocated by whatever group is popular with a political and media elite at any given time. Germany’s lessons should be a case study for political leaders everywhere

This article was originally published by the IER in June 2019 

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