Green innovations amid the glitter

Peter O’Donnell charts an ecological route through the European Motor Show.

Carmakers may be accused by environmentalists of never doing enough to green their products, but this year’s European Motor Show in Brussels has taken on the air of an ecologists’ beauty contest. On almost every stand, another commitment to sustainability assails the eyes and virtually every brochure or display brandishes some planet-saving innovation. True to its publicity about environmental awareness, the show even has an ecological route mapped out on the visitors’ guide.

From the vulpine BMW X6, crouched as if ready to pounce, to the friendly little Fiat Panda Aria, the recurrent themes are hybrids, higher economy and lower emissions. Citroën is fielding the C-Cactus concept car with a diesel-hybrid powertrain, Honda the zero-emission fuel-cell-driven FCX Clarity, Mercedes its E300 BlueTec and Opel its Ecoflex additions to the Corsa range. Peugeot offers two greener versions of its 308 - one that can be powered by 30% biodiesel and another adapted for use with E85 biofuel.

The humble Skoda Fabia Greenline manages to achieve CO2 emissions of 110 grams per kilometre and Toyota is showing off the Hybrid X, the latest in this marque’s ten-year-old efforts to get the best mix of internal combustion and electricity. Volvo’s twin boasts are its E85-engined S60 STCC racer and the new C30 ReCharge, a chargeable hybrid with autonomy for 100km as well as a four-cylinder E85 engine.

On the spacious stand promoting its Jeeps, Dodges and its capacious Grand Voyager (now grander than ever), Chrysler, too, makes expansive claims to be respecting the environment with the hybrids it unveiled just days before, at the motor show in Detroit. At the other extreme, crammed tightly into one of the most distant corners of the show, is the ‘Powered by Nature’ stand, with a score of family cars propelled by the widest range of technologies. The emissions-conscious motorist can choose between a VW Polo Blue Motion, a GM Hydrogen 4, a Saab Biopower, a Seat Ibiza Ecomotive, a Smart with micro-hybrid drive and an Alfa Romeo 159 diesel fitted with a particle filter designed to last as long as the vehicle.

Even the extreme vehicles that might have been dismissed in previous years as just plain eccentric seem almost mainstream in this year’s show. Umicore’s solar-powered car, just back from winning second place in the 3,000km Panasonic World Solar Challenge through the Australian desert can no longer be dismissed as an amusing toy. Nor can the Peugeot moped adapted by La Panne schoolchildren to cut 80% of normal emissions by running on fermented beetroot juice, nor even the wind-powered chariot with an auxiliary electric motor to get it started. As an indication of how improbability is moving into feasibility, Ghent University’s Energy Team is planning to drive its new aerodynamic car, with its high-pressure direct injection diesel engine, from Brussels to Lisbon on a single litre of biodiesel.

The rhetoric occasionally outstrips the reality. Hyundai’s extravagant assertion is that "it’s not just green cars, it’s green mentality" although there is little evident substantiation of the claim on its stand and its vehicles premiered at the Brussels show bring few significant green innovations. Audi expresses the pride of its employees in the "millions of tonnes of fuel saved and the billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide avoided" by its innovations. But amid the competition to be greenest, Ford’s bid for attention has a peculiarly earthy quality. All the toilets in the exhibition centre are adorned with placards reading: "This certainly isn’t where you’re going to find reduced gas emissions. But don’t miss the eco-friendly new engine in our Focus range in Hall 2."

Peter O’Donnell charts an ecological route through the European Motor Show.

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