Real Life CO ₂ Emission and Consumption of Four Car Powertrain Technologies Related to Driving Behaviour and Road Type 2009-24-0127

Four family cars are evaluated for their fuel consumption and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission: a petrol Peugeot 1.6l 307, diesel Peugeot 1.6l 307, hybrid Toyota Prius II and LPG Seat Leon 1.6l. They are subjected to 4 driving styles: new (environment friendly), relaxed, normal and aggressive. Each driving style is tested on three road types: urban, rural and motorway.

Consumption+CO₂ is highest on urban roads for all driving styles except for the Toyota Prius where this is only valid for the aggressive style; it is lowest on rural roads except for aggressive driving that is lowest on motorway for the Peugeot 307 petrol and diesel. Aggressive driving results in a significant increase of consumption+CO₂ on urban (max. of 68% from the Peugeot petrol car) and rural roads (max. of 47% from the Peugeot diesel car). The lowest increase is for the Seat Leon LPG (9% urban and 19% rural) together with the Prius (18% rural). Aggressive driving on urban roads results in high absolute consumption and CO₂ figures of 10 to 18 l/100km and 240 to 430 g/km (Toyota Prius and Peugeot 307 petrol respectively). There is little difference between the new, relaxed and normal style; the relaxed one gives overall the lowest results with a largest difference to normal style of 20% for the Prius and Peugeot diesel on urban roads.

The Prius has the lowest consumption on urban and rural roads and the Peugeot 307 diesel is lowest on the motorway. The ascending ranges in l/100km are: Prius 5.1-7.3, Peugeot diesel 5.1-8.0, Peugeot petrol 7.7-11.7 and Seat Leon 10.1-11.9. The Otto engines consume more then the hybrid-Otto combination and the diesel engine. The hybrid technology proves less sensitive to differences in driving patterns.

Of the four cars the Prius has the lowest CO₂ emission on all road types. In the ‘1/1/1 road type average’ the ascending ranges in g/km are: Prius 119–170, Peugeot diesel 135–210, Seat Leon 164–193 and Peugeot petrol 181–276. Note the differences and the change in order compared to the order for fuel consumption.

Analysis of the real time consumption shows the differences of petrol, diesel and hybrid powertrains.