How green is your car? - What does Volvo say?

Volvo is one of the few manufacturers to publish energy-use data on all its range, in the form of a 'life cycle diagram' on its website. According to Volvo's head of environment in research and development, Anders Karrberg, the company tried to do the same exercise as CNW in the mid-1980s, but abandoned it in 2001/2 because it became too complex.

Part of Volvo's aim was to help its designers choose materials and technologies for its cars according to their energy usage. That process has been replaced with a more pragmatic weight/cost equation.

'Weight is extremely important for carbon dioxide emissions, and cost will include the energy cost to our suppliers,' Karrberg says.

Volvo agrees with Toyota that by far the largest proportion of a car's energy footprint is accounted for by in-use fuel consumption. 'We think it's about 80% in use and 15% in manufacture, which leaves about 5% to be recovered in scrapping,' adds Karrberg.

As a result, Volvo is putting all its energy-saving efforts into reducing fuel consumption.