If you are an environmentalist, you surely prefer to use “greener driving machines”. Before you buy a new car, you probably are assessing the specs affecting its production of minimal CO2 and other emissions.
You may have heard about the fact that by the end of the decade, new cars need to produce an average of at most 130g/km of CO2. However, most cars today emit rather more than this. How will this average be assessed? The 130g/km average is well-meaning rhetoric, but no one in the EU carbonocracy can set out the definition for now. Meanwhile, with the target date fast approaching, the carmakers are left behind.
Some manufacturers, nevertheless, are going ahead anyway and creating some very low-CO2-producing cars. (I may not say "low-CO2 emitting", because emissions suggest pollution and CO2, unlike nitrogen oxides, particulates and unburnt hydrocarbons, are not pollutants.)
Among the most ideal vehicles that deserve recognition when it comes to environmenta friendliness is the BMW 118d. This vehicle model is currently having an "EfficientDynamics"– package the better to eke out every litre of diesel oil.
What is EfficientDynamics all about? (it’s not typo, there is really no space in between.) All new 1-series cars, unlike the 116i and 130i (the two extremes of the petrol-fuelled range), have a stop-start system, which you might remember from aeons ago with the Fiat Regata ES and later the VW Golf Ecomatic. The concept is the same with the car stopped and the gearbox in neutral, then the engine stops until you depress the clutch upon which it restarts automatically. Nevertheless, this modern, high-tech BMW works rather more discreetly, smoothly, and reliably.
Aside from the EfficientDynamics, there is also the Intelligent Alternator Control (IAC) that is perfect for an environmentalist. Whenever the engine is turning but not under load, (meaning when decelerating or braking) the alternator engages to charge up the high-capacity battery. Otherwise the alternator is disengaged unless the battery is getting too low. Some cars have the engine that requires the alternator to be turned on all the time, even when the battery is charged. Considering the fact that turning an alternator uses energy, the IAC system can reduce fuel consumption by up to three per cent.
Yet cleverer than that, an alternator that's charging hard is a big drag on the engine. So when the alternator is engaged as you slow down or stop, while some hard charging to do in order to recover the energy taken from the battery when driving under power, then that "drag" helps with the braking. Meaning you don't have to brake so hard, so less energy is wasted. This is called regenerative braking, as used by hybrids. Whenever you are slowing down at least, the 1-series behaves a bit like a hybrid.
So, feeling smugly green, 118d is indeed a good choice of ride. Immediately it feels unique among today's compact hatchbacks for blending that compactness with the very BMW sensation of rear-wheel drive. The demeanor feels pure with the new electric power steering that is good enough not to have the stodgy, artificial feel that is too often found in such systems. The electric power steering feels more natural when the motor is in the rack rather than in the column, and that of the 1-series is so designed.
The numerical credentials of this BMW 118d engine would have been so impossible and unreal. Forget about the 118d designation: like the more powerful 120d engine, this is a 2.0-litre unit but here producing 143bhp (21bhp up from the previous 118d) instead of 177. This is backed up by 221lb ft of torque for having effortless pulling ability typical of the best modern diesels, propelling the 118d from a standstill to that arbitrary 62mph figure in 8.9 seconds.
With all the flawless specs of 118d, you can also point out the officially-measured average CO2 output of just 123g/km, the lowest of any BMW-badged car. Imagine that all cars deliver all this dynamism and slip comfortably under the CO2 quota, then what a green environment we have in the future.
BMW received 2008 World Green Car Award for the 118d model
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