July 2007 - The Guardian ranks smart lpg best green city car! 

Top 10 Green Wheels

By Ben Lane, Director of WhatGreenCar?

Driving a car isn't the greenest activity in the world, but there are ways to minimise the impact your journey has on the planet and choosing the most environmentally friendly car you can is a very good start.

The chances are that you know broadly what type of vehicle you want, so rather than simply choose the 10 greenest cars on the market I've tried to pick the best in each class.  That way, there should be something to suit almost any type of driver.

For each model I've included a rating, using a scoring system developed by WhatGreenCar? Unlike the governent's new ranking system, which only assesses CO2 exhaust emissions, WhatGreenCar? also rates the environmental impact of each car's lifecycle (fuel and vehicle), expressing it as a score between 0 and 100 - the lower the score, the less the environmental impact.  For comparison, an average small family car has a rating of around go.

City car: smart fortwo LPG

Green score: 23

Although the fortwo design is nearly 10 years old, small is still beautiful.  Smart first earned its green credentials by adopting innovative production methods and designing cars with recyclable body parts.  The main reason why this model has such a good emissions rating is its small size - put simply, lighter cars generally have better fuel economy and lower emissions.

 Although the petrol and diesel models are already low CO2 cars, the LPG bi-fuel fortwo does better (93g CO2/km), by using a low carbon fuel (liquified petroleum gas).  Can't find LPG near you?  Don't panic - it is available at around 10% of UK fuel stations and you can always switch back to petrol when you need to. 

The Guardian, 31st July 2007