It’s not just car manufacturers that are feeling the need to think green - now it’s the insurers too, as More Th>n car insurance has launched a new eco friendly motoring scheme.

Known as ‘Green Wheels’, the service helps drivers assess how their driving affects the environment. It gives them access to information such as how they brake and accelerate and the number of short journeys they make. It is hoped that this technology will help drivers make more environmentally friendly choices while behind the wheel - and reduce the carbon footprint of Britain’s 31m cars.

The Green Wheels scheme utilises ‘green box’ technology - a small device that hooks up to the engine management system and effectively reads the way you drive. It then sends information to the More Th>n green box website where drivers can access their personal reports and confidentially read information about their driving style and how to become more economical.

Product director at More Th>n, Dowshan Humzah, commented: “Green Wheels is great news for anyone interested in taking more responsibility for their own carbon ‘tyre-print’.

“Furthermore, by helping motorists drive more efficiently the ‘green box’ can also help cut the cost of motoring which, with fuel prices rising, is top of many motorists’ agendas.”

It’s not the first time a car insurance company has ventured into the green market - indeed there are several car insurance providers that market exclusively to an environmentally conscious clientele by offering carbon offsetting schemes.

There is some debate however, as to whether it would make better environmental sense to shop around for the cheapest car insurance deal and then put the money saved towards an environmental project of your own choice.

Read on for more about green car insurance.

A quick recap of the 2008 and its implications. 

Company car tax
The lower CO2 threshold for qualifying cars reduces to 130g/km from April 2010.

Authorised Mileage Allowance Payments (AMAPs)
Rates for business mileage in a private car in 2008/9 held at 40p/mile up to 10,000 miles a year, 25p/mile above 10,000 miles.

Class 1A NICs
Calcualtion is based on 12.8% of P11D value in 2008/9 - unchanged from 2007/8.

Employer-provided ‘free’ fuel
Government set rate for the calcualtion of tx due on employer-provided ‘free’ fuel for private use rose to £16,900 from April 2008.

Capital allowances
These will be based on emissions of CO2 from April 2009. Expenditure on cars with CO2 emissions above 160g/km will attract 10% writing down allowance (WDA) while expenditure on cars with CO2 emissions of 160g/km or below with attract 20% WDA.

Biofuels
Duty differentials for biofuels will cease in 2010, with support switching to the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) from April 2008. The RTFO aims to reach a target of 5.7% biofuel content for all road transport fuels by 2010.

Fuel duty
A rise in duty of 2p/litre is deferred until 1 October 2008.

The Isle of Man Post Office has announced that it is going green. It has included an electric post van on its 99 strong collection and delivery vehicle fleet for the first time ever.
According to the Post Office the Mega Multitruck ultra-light electric van has cut fuel costs from 17p to less than two pence a mile.
The move is part of a pilot scheme to see how the organisation might best run electric as a way of cutting fuel costs and carbon emissions.
Malcolm MacPherson, managing director of the Isle of Man Post Office said that the new vehicle replaced a car-derived diesel van to give zero exhaust emissions and a 21% cut in fuel costs from 17 to 2 pence a mile.
Simon McBride

Date: 17 June 2008
Time: 9.30am - 5.00pm
Location: University of Southampton
Contact: Roy Williamson - roy.williamson@envirobusiness.co.uk
Price: Free
This one day seminar is focussed on the use of algae as a sustainable fuel. The event will bring together:

- Research expertise in the fields of biology, processing and combustion
- SMEs developing and deploying products, for cultivating algae through to oil extraction
- Corporates seeking to engage and develop supply chains for sustainable fuel
- Funding and support organisations
- Major networking organisations with specific expertise across the ‘tank to tank’ supply chain
Participants will learn more about the driving forces, political framework, technology challenges and expertise. You will also glean more about programmes of financial support for de-risking technology development and commercialisation.
Organisations presenting include:
- Virgin Atlantic Airways
- Eco-Solids
- Renewable Fuels Agency
- University of Southampton
- Carbon Trust
- First Light Energy
- Bioscience for Business KTN
- Regenatec
- WRc
- The Marine Biological Association

For more information and to register, please visit:
http://www.envirobusiness.co.uk/energise-knowledge-event.html

Faye Sunderland

 You may be jealous of ‘gas’ prices across the pond where they teeter close to $4 a gallon, whereas we pay nearer $10 a gallon - but it’s the North Americans who are green with envy about our environmental breakthroughs.

Green cars are on the mind of North Americans, just as they are throughout the world, but an article in a Trenton, Ontario based newspaper questions just why the promised influx of green cars has failed to materialise.

In 2003, JD Power Associates, an automotive market research and polling group, predicted that by 2006 North American car buyers will have purchased more than half a million green cars with 20 hybrids, trucks and sports utility models to choose from.

By 2008 however, there are only 12 hybrid models on offer - and this includes five models from Japanese manufacturers. Collectively all companies have around 300 hybrids on the road, when the original prediction was for more than 30,000.

So with demand expected to be high given the rise in fuel prices, just what has slowed down the development of green cars in North America?

According to the Trenton newspaper, most North Americans are simply unwilling to sacrifice their ‘gas guzzlers’ for leaner, greener alternatives. In fact the average North American vehicle consumes more fuel today than the Model T used at 25mpg.

There is little base-stock for alternative fuels such as ethanol and bio-diesel, which cause controversy in the on-going fuel v food debate.

Consequently, green cars remain a rarely used alternative rather than a success story in North America, a continent that uses 1.444 billion litres of petrol every day.

How do you think green cars could find more success in North America? How can Americans be persuaded to go green? Let us know your thoughts.

In the next five to ten years we may see zero-emission electric Audi cars on the streets of the UK. The prestigious German car manufacturer believes that diesel and battery technology will dominate in the coming years, Audi’s chairman Welt am Sonntag stated that “Electric cars offer great opportunities, which we have already seized on.”

There are still more than one million cars a year being scrapped in the UK without first having all pollutants removed. There is currently a loophole in the DVLA’s licensing system that allows unlicensed scrap merchants and car owners to deregister a car, remove metals and any valuable scrap materials and then dump the remaining pollutants such as oil, brake fluid and airbag gas containers as untreated waste.

The DVLA has said that it is working hard to find a solution whilst Paul Everitt, the chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) stated that “We are very disappointed that these two Government agencies [the DVLA and Environment Agency] have failed to address this loophole.”

Government figures revealed that only 900,000 certificates of destruction were issued in 2006 despite more than 2,000,000 cars being taken of the road. In 2003, The End of Life Vehicle Regulations came into force which requires all cars to be stripped of pollutants and recycled at licensed scrap yards.

 Remember the days when hybrid cars and hydrogen fuel cells seemed like little more than a mythical vision of the space age? Now they’ve come to fruition perhaps we should not be so quick to mock the latest inventions - even if the concept of a ‘flying green car’ will raise one or two eyebrows.

At the annual Electric Aircraft Symposium in San Francisco, the latest requirement for the invention of personal aircraft vehicles (PAVs) is that they adopt a green outlook. The annual PAV challenge has been re-branded as the General Aviation Technology Challenge with a green prize to be awarded from this year onwards.

PAVs are the latest step in the flying car concept. Instead of appearing as hover-capable wingless super machines, the likes of which you’d expect to see on an episode of the Jetsons, they instead take the form of advanced light aeroplanes. They can take off after a short run and are quiet enough so that they don’t upset your neighbours.

The idea behind the PAVs is that they will be able to fold their wings and drive on roads like an ordinary car, while also being able to zip through air space for speedy trips to the office or supermarket.

However, with fears growing about the fuel emissions of most aircrafts its encouraging to see that there is an environmental focus being placed on the development of even the most far-fetched concepts. At the moment the most realistic version of the flying car is the Terrafugia Transition, which currently clocks a mere 25 miles per gallon, though it can use unleaded fuel, unlike many light aircraft.

Clearly there’s some way to go before this latest green concept gets off the ground.

New proposals could see large areas of Dublin closed to private traffic. In a bid to tackle congestion The Joint Oireachtas Transport Committee has drafted a report recommending that a number of key streets be prioritised for buses. The roads mentioned in the report are O’Connell, Dame and Westmoreland Streets. If this report goes through successfully then the street closures could be in place by April 2009.

Frank Fahey of Fianna Fail claims that the traffic management measures are workable “We decided bus transport; a reliable high-frequency bus service can effectively deal with traffic congestion in Dublin in the short term”.

These plans to battle congestion could also be implemented in Galway, Cork, Waterford and Limerick.

London’s electric car company NICE (No Internal Combustion Engine) expects to grow under the new mayor Boris Johnson.
The green car maker claims that this is down to a combination of exemption from the capital’s congestion charge, free parking and growing concern among Londoners over the spiralling cost of petrol and diesel.
The new mayor of London has confirmed that he will reform the congestion charge but NICE believes that the owners of its Mega City car should continue to pay nothing to enter the zone as its cars are emit zero emissions.
Julian Wilford, co-founder of NICE cars said, “We know that the new mayor of London, Boris Johnson recognises the many benefits of owning an electric car. But we also understand the importance of choice to the mayor – and to our customers. At the NICE Car Company we have the widest range of zero-emissions vehicles on the market and hope the new mayor will find time to visit our West London base to learn more.”
With petrol and diesel now costing more than £5 a gallon, which means around 14p per mile for an owner of a medium-sized car, capable of 35mpg. NICE owners pay around a tenth of that - just 1.5 p per mile. As Vehicle Excise Duty is also CO2-based, they also benefit from no annual road tax.
The NICE Car Company has announced it will launch several new launches, at this years British Motor Show.
Simon McBride