Australia's new hybrid cars will make a significant contribution to reducing air pollution in our cities. They are expected to be over 93% cleaner than the average petrol passenger car on the road today.

The vehicles could also lower greenhouse gas emissions by over 70% compared to average cars now on the road says Dr Graeme Pearman, Chief of CSIRO Atmospheric Research.

"The aXcessaustralia car and the Holden ECOmmodore are an enormously positive development for the environment," says Dr Pearman.

CSIRO and more than 80 industry collaborators developed the aXcessaustralia vehicle, which is powered by an electric motor and has a fuel-efficient motor to drive the generator that charges the batteries.

The Holden ECOmmodore includes state-of-the art CSIRO battery technology.

Motor vehicles are responsible for much of the air pollution in our major cities. In Sydney, cars release 91% of the carbon monoxide in the air, 82% of the oxides of nitrogen and 49% of volatile organic compounds, such as benzene. Cars emit one-third of the dangerous tiny particles that are present in Sydney's air.

"The new cars emit just a small fraction of pollutants that cause smog," says Dr Pearman.

"If we could have 20% of cars like aXcessaustralia or the ECOmmodore on the road, we could reduce people's exposure to pollution by 30%," says Dr Pearman.

As well as offering air pollution benefits, aXcessaustralia is expected to generate just 80g of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide for each kilometre travelled compared with approximately 270g per kilometre released by today's cars.

Like other cars, the hybrid cars release greenhouse gases such as methane as well as carbon dioxide. There are additional greenhouse gas emissions, due to the electricity needed to recharge the car.

"Taking everything into account, including generating the electricity to recharge the car, greenhouse gas emissions should drop from over 6 tonnes per year from the average car today to less than 2 tonnes per year from the hybrid cars," says Dr Pearman.

"Cutting greenhouse gas emissions from transport would be an important contribution to greenhouse targets, as the transport sector accounts for almost one quarter of Australia's carbon dioxide emissions," says Dr Pearman.

As well as producing air quality and greenhouse benefits, the hybrid-electric car is far more economical than existing vehicles. At 28 km/L, the new car improves fuel economy by more than 300% compared with the average car on the road today.

"Anyone driving 15,000 km per year will save 1250 litres of petrol. This represents a saving of more than $1000 each year," says Dr Pearman.

CSIRO's calculations of the impact on air pollution of hybrid cars are done using their newly developed 'TAPM' air pollution model. Information on pollution emissions comes from the Victorian EPA.

Graphics are available as well as simple graphs showing the dramatic reduction in pollution and carbon dioxide emissions from the new cars.

More information from:

Dr Graeme Pearman 03 9239 4650

0418 291 585

graeme.pearman@dar.csiro.au

Paul Holper 03 9239 4661

0407 394 661

paul.holper@dar.csiro.au

To display a larger version of the image above click here.