Since Al Gore announced that “we are in grave danger” In the Inconvenient Truth, it has become fashionable to boast about one's eco-friendliness, how small one's carbon footprint is and how frequently one recycles.
Car manufacturers have scrambled to produce vehicles that are kinder to the environment.
Or make it seem as though they have, by taking derivatives of existing models, making a few minor revisions and then giving it a name with the ‘eco'- prefix, usually in green or blue lettering.
The Toyota Prius is what comes to mind when you think of environmentally-friendly motoring. But you’d be wrong.
It appeared to have been proven on an episode of Top Gear that after one lap of the famous track surrounding the Top Gear headquarters at same speeds, the Prius uses more fuel than a BMW M3. It was also shown on the satirical series, South Park, that hybrids like the Prius do pollute the air - with a great deal of driver “smug”.
But perhaps I’m being a tad harsh on the concept Enviro-motoring. Indeed, there some cool vehicles that one can look good in without destroying entire ecosystems.
Like the Fisker Karma for example.
Despite the peculiar name, it’s a very desirable and eco-friendly car.
I was drooling over visuals of its sleek body, gracefully dominating an undulating piece of road, on Ignition’s Auto Mundial.
I was surprised when it was announced that this Fisker creation is powered by an electric motor. One rarely uses the terms ‘environmentally friendly’ and ‘performance-orientated car’ in the same sentence. The Fisker produces super car levels of power without releasing any harmful emissions into the atmosphere.
Even the already fashionable MINI has an electric version, called the MINI E.
One can only imagine the smugness of such a driver, being cocooned in the stylish, dainty icon and being able to claim that her MINI produces no greenhouse gasses en-route to the mall and Newscafe.
Despite its benefits to the environment, there is a problem with electric-powered vehicles: the barely audible whirr produced by the motor poses a threat to pedestrians.
They won’t hear it coming until it’s too late. Although - further adding to the novelty of owning a car that you have to plug in -manufacturers of these silent electric cars are giving the option of having your vehicle equipped with an alerting noise, informing pedestrians of your approach, via speakers integrated into the car’s bumpers.
"One possibility is choosing your own noise,” said spokesperson for BMW’s MINI division, Nathalie Bauters.
With all this focus on creating vehicles with the environment in mind, it seems inevitable that our favourite internal combustion engines are destined to become obsolete. Sure, they’re trying to emulate engine sounds. And I must admit, the idea of having them projected through a speaker in the bumpers does seem quite cool. But for me, no electric whirr or studio-engineered sound can compare to the aurally-pleasant burble of a horizontally-opposed Subaru boxer engine, or the monstrous roar of an Audi Q7 V12 4.2 litre TDI.
For a petrol head like myself, these sounds will always be electrifying.
Car manufacturers have scrambled to produce vehicles that are kinder to the environment.
Or make it seem as though they have, by taking derivatives of existing models, making a few minor revisions and then giving it a name with the ‘eco'- prefix, usually in green or blue lettering.
The Toyota Prius is what comes to mind when you think of environmentally-friendly motoring. But you’d be wrong.
It appeared to have been proven on an episode of Top Gear that after one lap of the famous track surrounding the Top Gear headquarters at same speeds, the Prius uses more fuel than a BMW M3. It was also shown on the satirical series, South Park, that hybrids like the Prius do pollute the air - with a great deal of driver “smug”.
But perhaps I’m being a tad harsh on the concept Enviro-motoring. Indeed, there some cool vehicles that one can look good in without destroying entire ecosystems.
Like the Fisker Karma for example.
Despite the peculiar name, it’s a very desirable and eco-friendly car.
I was drooling over visuals of its sleek body, gracefully dominating an undulating piece of road, on Ignition’s Auto Mundial.
I was surprised when it was announced that this Fisker creation is powered by an electric motor. One rarely uses the terms ‘environmentally friendly’ and ‘performance-orientated car’ in the same sentence. The Fisker produces super car levels of power without releasing any harmful emissions into the atmosphere.
Even the already fashionable MINI has an electric version, called the MINI E.
One can only imagine the smugness of such a driver, being cocooned in the stylish, dainty icon and being able to claim that her MINI produces no greenhouse gasses en-route to the mall and Newscafe.
Despite its benefits to the environment, there is a problem with electric-powered vehicles: the barely audible whirr produced by the motor poses a threat to pedestrians.
They won’t hear it coming until it’s too late. Although - further adding to the novelty of owning a car that you have to plug in -manufacturers of these silent electric cars are giving the option of having your vehicle equipped with an alerting noise, informing pedestrians of your approach, via speakers integrated into the car’s bumpers.
"One possibility is choosing your own noise,” said spokesperson for BMW’s MINI division, Nathalie Bauters.
With all this focus on creating vehicles with the environment in mind, it seems inevitable that our favourite internal combustion engines are destined to become obsolete. Sure, they’re trying to emulate engine sounds. And I must admit, the idea of having them projected through a speaker in the bumpers does seem quite cool. But for me, no electric whirr or studio-engineered sound can compare to the aurally-pleasant burble of a horizontally-opposed Subaru boxer engine, or the monstrous roar of an Audi Q7 V12 4.2 litre TDI.
For a petrol head like myself, these sounds will always be electrifying.
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