Green NCAP is a

green vehicle A green vehicle, clean vehicle, eco-friendly vehicle or environmentally friendly vehicle is a road motor vehicle that produces less harmful impacts to the environment than comparable conventional internal combustion engine vehicles running on ...

assessment programme hosted and supported by the

New Car Assessment Program A New Car Assessment Program (or Programme) is a government car safety program tasked with evaluating new automobile designs for performance against various safety threats. History The first NCAP was created in 1979, by the United States Nation ...

in cooperation with European Governments. The Organisation has test laboratories in eight European countries and aims to increase awareness of the environmental impact of the vehicles. The first set of results was released on 28 February 2019. , the organisation considers only energy used while driving, however it plans to expand testing procedures further, in order to cover the entire life-cycle of the car as well as the range of the

electric vehicle An electric vehicle (EV) is a vehicle that uses one or more electric motors for propulsion. It can be powered by a collector system, with electricity from extravehicular sources, or it can be powered autonomously by a battery (sometimes cha ...

Testing Procedure

Test is divided into two major stages. The first one is a test on the

chassis dynamometer A chassis dynamometer, informally referred to as a rolling road, is a mechanical device that uses one or more fixed roller assemblies to simulate different road conditions within a controlled environment, and is used for a wide variety of vehicle ...

, adhering to the WLTP procedure, with a slight modification: temperature is set to , which is close to European average, and the vehicle has lights, air conditioning and other typical systems turned on, while also carrying a realistic payload. In total an equivalent five WLTP tests are conducted. The second part includes road testing with

portable emissions measurement system A portable emissions measurement system (PEMS) is a vehicle emissions testing device that is small and light enough to be carried inside or moved with a motor vehicle that is being driven during testing, rather than on the stationary rollers of ...

which adheres to the further expanded European Union's Real Driving Emissions. Expanded testing conditions include driving at altitudes from 0 to 1300

metres above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

, and ambient temperatures from .

Scoring

Scoring is divided into Overall Rating – between 0 and 5 stars – and two major groups: Clean Air Index and Energy Efficiency Index. Clean Air Index covers

air pollutant Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different types ...

emissions for unburnt hydrocarbons (HC),

carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the simple ...

(CO),

nitrogen oxides Nitrogen oxide may refer to a binary compound of oxygen and nitrogen, or a mixture of such compounds: Charge-neutral *Nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen(II) oxide, or nitrogen monoxide *Nitrogen dioxide (), nitrogen(IV) oxide *Nitrogen trioxide (), or ni ...

() and

particulates Particulates – also known as atmospheric aerosol particles, atmospheric particulate matter, particulate matter (PM) or suspended particulate matter (SPM) – are microscopic particles of solid or liquid matter suspended in the air. The ter ...

(PN) for each for the Laboratory Tests as well as the Road test. Energy Efficiency Index covers

energy efficiency Energy efficiency may refer to: * Energy efficiency (physics), the ratio between the useful output and input of an energy conversion process ** Electrical efficiency, useful power output per electrical power consumed ** Mechanical efficiency, a ra ...

of the entire vehicle, including aerodynamic drag, tyre friction or its mass. For even comparison with electric vehicles, fuel consumption is converted into kWh using

calorific value The heating value (or energy value or calorific value) of a substance, usually a fuel or food (see food energy), is the amount of heat released during the combustion of a specified amount of it. The ''calorific value'' is the total energy rele ...

. Green NCAP additionally tests

greenhouse gas emissions Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and lar ...

, however they are not a part of the rating.

Life Cycle Assessment

In April 2022 Green NCAP published their first Life Cycle Assessment of 61 European cars, estimating the emissions and primary energy demand associated with the car's production, usage and recycling. They assumed a vehicle lifetime of 16 years, a total driven distance of and forecast the average energy mix of the 27 European Union member states plus the United Kingdom. Various news outlets reported on the results showing that larger electric vehicles could have life cycle emissions similar to or greater than internal combustion-engined vehicles or hybrids. However, several assumptions made by the study, and by the tool by Joanneum Research used in the study, have been criticised. These allegedly include using outdated emissions estimates on battery production, overly high production emissions for electric vehicles, and unrealistic tests for energy use. The battery production emission estimates were reviewed by Joanneum Research and could be traced back to a problem with a data interface, and clarifications on the testing procedures were provided by Green NCAP. In December 2022 Green NCAP published an interactive "Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Tool for Consumers", allowing to compare LCA values of different cars in relation to their country, energy mix and usage.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Green Ncap New Car Assessment Programs Consumer organisations in Belgium Green vehicles 2019 in transport