Lowest climate impact new vehicles unveiled by Green NCAP.

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【Summary】Green NCAP has awarded four vehicles, including the Dacia Spring, ORA Funky Cat, Renault Megane E-Tech, and Tesla Model 3, with its new Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Award. The organization aims to encourage consumers to consider a vehicle's entire life cycle, not just its powertrain, when making a purchasing decision. The LCA Award signifies that these vehicles have a low climate impact throughout their lifecycle, including factors like production, energy supply, and end-of-life treatment.

FutureCar Staff Oct 23, 2023 6:16 AM PT

Lowest climate impact new vehicles unveiled by Green NCAP.

Green NCAP has announced the recipients of its new Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) award, with four vehicles receiving five-star ratings. The cars that have been recognized are the Dacia Spring, the ORA Funky Cat, Renault's electric Megane E-Tech, and the Tesla Model 3.

By presenting this award, Green NCAP aims to promote environmentally friendly choices and encourage consumers to consider a car's entire life cycle, rather than just its powertrain. The organization has introduced a visual stamp for the awarded vehicles to provide clear recognition of the environmental value associated with the award.

Aleksandar Damyanov, Green NCAP's technical manager, emphasized the significance of the LCA award. He explained that the award complements the organization's star ratings, which have been available since 2019, by assessing a vehicle's complete environmental impact. This assessment takes into account factors such as production, energy supply, and end-of-life considerations.

According to Damyanov, the LCA award assists consumers in making informed and sustainable choices regarding their vehicles. He believes that it will serve as a differentiating factor for the wide range of electric cars available on the market and hopes that it will inspire the industry to innovate and develop more sustainable vehicles.

The LCA award is exclusively given to five-star vehicles tested since 2022 that demonstrate exceptional performance in terms of LCA. Currently, these vehicles have total life cycle greenhouse gas emissions equal to or less than 120 g CO2‑eq./km, based on the Green NCAP LCA methodology and set European average values.

Since 2022, Green NCAP has been conducting LCA assessments for each car it tests, analyzing their impact from production to end-of-life treatment, including recycling. The organization has found that lighter vehicles with smaller batteries tend to have a smaller environmental footprint.

Green NCAP strongly encourages manufacturers to recognize the life cycle as a crucial aspect of vehicle development and to share detailed information about their own vehicle production processes.