Autocar UK – 24 April 2019

24 APRIL 2 019 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 21

NEWS

EVs are greener than

petrol cars – ‘after

driving 435k miles’

EU has set car firms

tough new targets to

reduce air pollution

THE OLD ‘WIN on Sunday,

sell on Monday’ adage was

always something of an

oversimplifi cation for car

makers to go motor racing,

but the ethos does still

stand. Will BMW really

sell more of its new 3 Series

because Andrew Jordan

scored a win fi rst time out

in the British Touring Car

Championship? Unlikely.

But it sure doesn’t hurt

BMW’s cause to re-establish

the model as the totem for

saloon-car excellence.

It’s heartening that

motorsport is still of value

to car makers in these fast-

evolving times, and beyond

the BTCC, there’s a great

example on the global stage

of a rising Chinese brand

using racing to introduce

itself to the world.

We’ve yet to see Geely’s

Lynk&Co on European

roads, but that hasn’t

stopped it showcasing the

03 TCR in the FIA World

Touring Car Cup – and like

BMW’s 3 Series in the UK,

it’s already a winner.

A four-car super-team

has joined the burgeoning

series, headed by a trio

of drivers who share

eight World Touring Car

Championships between

them: 49-year-old French

legend Yvan Muller,

Guernsey’s Andy Priaulx,

who is making a tin-top

r e t u r n t h i s y e a r at t he a ge

of 44, and Sweden’s Thed

`

Lynk&Co’s target is to

become world champions

a

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Damien Smith

Björk. Muller’s promising

nephew, 22-year-old Yann

E h rl a c he r, i s i n t he ot he r 03.

But the interest goes

deeper than its stellar

drivers, because Geely is

offering the world a sneak

preview of its cars before

they are launched beyond

its domestic market. “This

is a global programme,

meaning it has relevance for

both China and the western

market,” says Lynk&Co’s

Johan Meissner.

So why WTCR? “It’s a

perfect match for us,” he

says. “[The TCR rules]

utilise standard road cars

as a base, providing us with

an opportunity to connect

the race and road car

development. The WTCR

also has extremely close and

competitive racing, with

2019 promising to be one

of the toughest touring car

seasons ever. Our target is to

become world champions.”

The Swedish-based Cyan

Racing team has already

made a splash. At the

Marrakech street circuit

earlier this month, Björk

fi nished second on the 03

TCR’s debut, then took a

historic win – the fi rst for

a Chinese car maker in an

FIA event – in Race 3 after

Muller retired from the lead.

WTCR resumes this

weekend in Hungary. It’s

a great global series – a

shame, then, that it lacks

a round in Britain.

Thed Björk claimed

Lynk&Co’s first race

win in Morocco

MAZDA’S PLAN TO CUT CO 2 BY 90 %

Mazda has committed to

reducing its average ‘well-

to-wheel’ CO 2 emissions

• which take into account the

production of the car and the

fu e l th a t p owe r s i t – to 9 0 %

of its 2010 levels by 2050.

And the firm insists the

combustion engine has

a key role to play in that.

As well as developing

more efficient compression

ignition petrol engines,

Mazda is funding research

into renewable liquid fuel

made from algae biofuel.

When burnt, it only releases

CO 2 recently removed

from the atmosphere via

photosynthesis.

Mazda believes biofuel

can be produced on land

unsuitable for agriculture,

using only saline and waste

water, resulting in a cheap,

viable way of making

combustion engines

more efficient.

has been called into

question. A year ago, the

International Council on Clean

Transportation released

a n i n - d e p th r e p o r t o n th e

same issue. It summarised 10

different studies into battery

manufacturing globally, all of

which attempted to calculate

the CO 2 released.

The results ranged from

50kg CO 2 /kWh to 200kg CO 2 /

kWh and even higher. The

ICCT used a central estimate

of 175kg and calculated that

battery production would add

35g CO 2 /km to the lifetime

efficiency of an electric car,

assuming the battery lasted

150,000km (93,200 miles).

The ICCT report also

compared a Nissan Leaf

carrying a 30kWh battery with

a Peugeot 208 1.6 BlueHDi,

and concluded that the Nissan

has a relatively modest 30%

efficiency advantage in

day-to-day use.

The IVL Swedish

Environmental Research

Institute came to a similar

conclusion in 2017, stating

that an EV with a big 100kWh

battery – manufactured on

a grid that was between

50-70% fossil fuel – has

emitted between 15 and 20

tonnes of CO 2 before it has

turned a wheel.

The IVL recommended

that drivers should not buy

an EV with a large battery

and that it was important that

future battery manufacturing

was achieved with as much

renewable energy as possible.

Audi’s newly rebuilt facility

near Brussels has gone down

this route for its production of

the new E-tron. The factory has

37,000 square metres of solar

panels, said to provide 95%

of its electricity, and it uses

biogas to heat the plant. The

E-tron’s battery is also built on

site, helping to drive down its

embedded levels of CO 2.

Clearly, while EVs have

a huge advantage in terms

of local pollution, the whole

manufacturing cycle is

surprisingly energy-intensive

and the day-to-day energy

efficiency is not as impressive

a s i t s h o u l d b e o n th e t y p i c a l

European grid.

If building EVs wasn’t

financially risky enough for car

makers, demands for factories

to run mostly on renewables

adds significantly to the cost.

HILTON HOLLOWAY