Why our next red car might be a shade greener

You’ve just bought your brand new incredibly fuel efficient car, and you’re feeling very pleased with yourself. Not only will you be saving yourself money, but you’ll also be doing your bit for the environment. Or will you?

We recently bought a small company car, mainly so we can get to customers’ properties in order to carry out surveys. Since we’re in the renewable energy sector, we wanted to make sure we have the smallest environmental impact possible when driving around. We therefore settled on a shiny new red – and highly efficient – Toyota Aygo.

However, one criticism that’s sometimes levelled at buyers of new, greener vehicles is that while you’ll certainly be responsible for fewer noxious emissions than if you’d bought an old gas-guzzler, you still need to take into account the environmental impact of the manufacturing process. If we all decided to make our existing vehicles last a little longer, might the planet actually be better off than if we bought brand new ones?

If this is true, it’s nice to see that if we buy from Toyota again, our conscience may be just that little bit clearer.

That’s because the company has just announced that its massive solar PV array in Derbyshire has been switched on and is now helping to generate the electricity it needs for vehicle production: http://blog.toyota.co.uk/here-comes-the-sun-toyotas-solar-switch-on. It’s easy to be cynical, and to say this is just a smart PR move or a money-saving exercise, but, frankly, who cares? If it does have the effect of reducing harmful emissions and our reliance on fossil fuels, it’s got to be good.