What's the Story - Golf GTE and e-Golf?

[arcadelt]

Also, if you were truly concerned about the environment you'd keep the Hyundai a lot longer.

Fair cop!

[arcadelt]

Also, if you were truly concerned about the environment you'd keep the Hyundai a lot longer.

Actually brad, I've been thinking about this comment overnight, and I now wonder why you think that is the case. Second hand cars cascade down through the secondhand market, so its not like they are being consumed by the first purchaser. Would you care to elaborate?

[brad]

Actually brad, I've been thinking about this comment overnight, and I now wonder why you think that is the case. Second hand cars cascade down through the secondhand market, so its not like they are being consumed by the first purchaser. Would you care to elaborate?

On a like-for-like basis (eg: buying another i30) you still have to produce the new vehicle with the associated pollution output, etc. I believe the carbon footprint associated with manufacture is around 20% +-8%?

When you turn it up a notch & introduce the materials associated with battery production it's a step worse for the environment as a whole of life cycle proposition.

Australia has been buying 1million + new vehicles every year for the past 5(??) years. The average age of the fleet has dropped from 11 years in 1997 to 10 years, despite vehicles being made of better materials & better quality which implies they are being scrapped earlier.

While used vehicles do trickle-down through the system, I believe that due to the number of new vehicles entering the market every year, the lifespan of the used vehicles is shorter than it was because people can't sell them. Our group of friends all have kids that are starting to drive. 30 years back they would have bought the kids a 2nd hand car about 5-10 years old for a few thousand. These days, they look at a 2nd hand car for around $6,000 and an entry level new car for around $12k and stump up the cash for the new car (for multiple reasons). I think lots of used cars sit around waiting to be sold, then the rego runs out & they sit some more & then they get rust & eventually end up at the scrappers.

Sure, if you need a new car then buy one but I think trying to colour it as an environmental choice is probably only trying to help justify the purchase.

These links are just random things I googled. Maybe they are really inaccurate & BS but it's food for thought.

Better for the Environment: New Car or Keep the Old

Manufacturing a car creates as much carbon as driving it | Environment | The Guardian

403 - Forbidden

Your Car's Carbon Footprint: Hybrid vs. Gasoline vs. Electric Cars - WegoWise Blog

Environmental Impact | EVs might be more damaging than you think | Digital Trends

[Arnold]

Also, no car is remotely fuel efficient at 200km/h . . . . you'd be lucky to do better than 15l/100km at 200km/h.

I considered the e-tron myself, briefly, and it went nowhere near stacking up financially on my ~10k annual mileage, so for the smugness only of eliminating 2.5t of CO2.

You'd want to be doing 80km per day on pure electric in the e-tron and recharging mostly off roof-top PV cells. Even then, you might only save $3000 pa in fuel compared with many small cars and the extra $30,000 invested is costing $1500 in opportunity cost (min) and $3000 in depreciation (min). And how many tons of CO2 went into saving those 3.8t (max) of annual emissions? One would only consider marginal CO2, not the allocated CO2 from construction of the plant and equipment etc.

You'd be better off taking the $20,000 - $40,000 you save by buying a Golf or similar and investing in renewable energy stocks or such a fund as that's going to have far more impact on development of renewables than buying a single car from VAG. Funds for some direct action (excuse me) to displace some more of your domestic carbon-intensive energy sources, which cause more of Australians' annual CO2 emissions than driving would also be liberated.

Or simply drive less, if at all, and use pubic transport more, and consume less electricity in the home.

PV solar did not make sense on our roof either as our four-person household only consumes 12kWh per day (more than half outside productive solar hours and with the aid of gas space and instantaneous water heating) and at $0.20 per kWh it is a zero sum game without cost effective storage. So energy efficiency in the home is worthwhile (LED, good insulation, passive heating and cooling).

In other words, consume less, not more. In line with that, keeping the i30 for the time being is probably the more greenhouse neutral of all options