Australia's CO2 emissions shame

BMW revealed during the local launch of its 330e plug-in hybrid yesterday that Australia and Mexico share lowly standing around the world for passenger-vehicle CO2 emissions.

"We don't stand in a great position," said BMW Australia's head of product and market planning, Shawn Ticehurst, referring to a report issued in late March by the National Transport Commission of Australia. The report is based around data captured in 2014.

"Europe stands at an average of 124 grams per kilometre. Australia stood at 177; so we currently rank at 31st in the world, alongside Mexico.

"As a first-world country, we've still got quite some way to go."

Australia's CO2 emissions average across our new passenger-vehicle fleet is listed in the report on the page labelled 31 (which is actually page 33 including the cover page and its reverse side). Two pages further on, our light-commercial vehicle emissions are listed – at 235g/km – again placing us well in arrears of European nations.

Ticehurst went on to explain that companies selling cars within the borders of the European Union face tough new emissions standards from 2020. Fleet averages will be limited to 95g/km. To illustrate how draconian that figure is, the NTC reports lists the tiny Fiat 500 as one conventional car that can actually better that number, at 90g/km. Locally-built cars range from 121g/km for the Toyota Camry Hybrid, through to 261g/km for the Holden Caprice.

The projected 95g/km figure for Europe post-2020 is not a lower limit, it's the average. For car companies to fit their entire model range within a block straddling that average, a substantial number of cars in the range will have to be low-emissions or zero-emissions vehicles – battery-electric, fuel-cell or plug-in hybrid technology, basically.

Of those three, plug-in hybrids are the most practical solution in the short term.

"Plug-in hybrids play a crucial role in achieving that [target]," Ticehurst said. "We wouldn't achieve those standards as an industry without plug-in hybrids."

While there's no legislative framework compelling consumers to buy low-emissions vehicles in Australia, there appears to be a societal swing towards a more sustainable style of living – whether it's recycling bottles and cans, fixing solar panels on roofs... or buying fuel-efficient cars.

Australia's motor vehicle CO2 emissions have been consistently falling over a period of years, but is being left behind by the European nations. Once the local manufacturing industry closes by the end of 2017, however, the average CO2 emissions figure for Australian passenger cars is likely to plummet.

Increasing availability of plug-in hybrids and other low/zero-emissions vehicles will accelerate the reduction of CO2 emissions across the nation's vehicle fleet. Australia's changing demographic will have some impact also, over the longer term.

More Australians are moving to the big city and we're already one of the most heavily 'urbanised' nations in the world, with 90 per cent of us living in larger cities and towns. With that steady move away from rural areas, our commuting times and distances will shrink. A study by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics, published November 2015, indicates that the average daily commute for Australians is down to 15.6km each way. For 50 per cent of Aussie commuters, the round trip is just 10km a day.

Better than half the commuters who drive from home to work each day would benefit from owning a plug-in hybrid, like the 330e, BMW states. Even on heavy-traffic days, over a trip of 20km in each direction, the petrol/electric 330e is likely to use less fuel than all but the most frugal of diesel passenger cars.

And ultimately that's got to be good for motorists AND the climate.
Further reading:
Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid 2015 Review
Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV 2014 Review
Audi A3 Sportback e-tron 2014 launch review
Living with a plug-in hybrid
Holden Volt: the technical guff