GreenCars attends Auris launch
In what might be a first for a big South African corporate, Toyota SA included three bloggers in the launch event of their latest C-segment offering, the Auris. I was one of the lucky three, along with Marc Forrest and local Web 2.0 guru, Mike Stopforth.
Needless to say, the event was carried out in typical big budget style, and included all the accoutrements of the lavish motoring journo lifestyle, including 3-storey penthouse suites for each of the bloggers. For more information on the launch event itself, check out Auris Blog.
I’d better add that I’m not oblivious to the irony of the green car guy being flown down in a 737 to Durban to drive a car in a 600km circle and fly back to Joburg again - the opportunity to network and promote my green agenda to the bigwigs at Toyota and the legions of motoring scribes outweighed my admittedly large carbon footprint for the week, methinks. Overall, it was a fascinating experience, and I must thank Toyota for being forward-thinking enough to include a social media element in such a high-profile event. Now, on to the car:
The Auris represents Toyota’s replacement of their successful RunX range, and it’s improved on its predeccesor in pretty much every possible way. For driving impressions of each of the model variants, you can check out my post on Auris Blog. *edit* I’ve just read my post on the Auris Blog… looks like the driving impressions will be added by their content manager as a separate post at a later date *edit*
What I’d like to focus on in this post are the green credentials of the range. Toyota went to great lengths to emphasise the environmental friendliness of the Auris, which begs the question: how green is the Auris really?
CO2 emissions for the range are neither particularly good or bad. Compared to the top 10 petrol small family cars in the UK (ranked by CO2 emissions), even the Auris 1.4 falls short of 10th place. Honda’s Civic Type-S 1.8l, in tenth place, emits 152 g/km compared to the Auris 1.4’s 163 g/km. A Golf V, 1.4 manual emits 165 g/km.
On the plus side, the Auris 1.6 is available with Toyota’s innovative multi-mode manual transmission (MMM-T), which to all intents and purposes acts just like an automatic, with steering mounted paddle shifters for those who feel the urge to do things manually. The 1.6 MMM-T actually offers the lowest emissions out of all the petrol Aurises (161 g/km). This offers manual-like effiency with the convenience of an auto ‘box, and fares a lot better than many other automatics in terms of CO2 output. In comparison to the 1.6 MMM-T’s 161 g/km, a Golf V 1.6FSI tiptronic emits a hefty 182 g/km. Nevertheless, even the 1.6 MMM-T fails to crack the UK’s top ten list for small automatic car emissions - BMW’s 118i, for example, emits 148 g/km.
The 2.0 diesel motor is a real gem of an engine, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the wheel of our black test car - it’s a smooth-revving, quiet unit with a very wide torque band that really makes for an enjoyable driving experience. This unit fares well compared to many of its South African rivals. It emits 144 g/km compared with the Ford Focus 2.0 diesel’s 148 g/km and the Renault Megane 1.9 DCi’s 149 g/km, to name a few. Additionally, the Auris 2.0D is equipped with a particulate filter to virtually eliminate soot emissions. Particulate filters are not offered on many local diesels, so the Auris has an advantage here. Bear in mind, though, that diesels do emit higher levels of NOx than their petrol counterparts.
So in terms of emissions the Auris range is no showstopper, but Toyota can claim credit for one or two other green developments. First off, Toyota’s UK manufacturing facility has reduced its waste ouput by 59%, it’s volatile organic compound emissions by 62%, it’s energy usage by 71% and its water usage by 72% over the last 13 years. Another nice development is that a number of key components have been “modularized”. For example, in a light frontal collision, an entire headlight assembly no longer needs to be replaced if only the mounting brackets have broken. Rather, new mounting brackets can be fitted to the otherwise intact headlight assembly. This should reduce the number of components that need to be replaced under such circumstances, which in turn should benefit both the environment and the consumer’s pocket.
All in all, the Auris range has a lot going for it: safety, competitive pricing, an attractive exterior and stylish interior as well as Toyota’s legendary reliability and quality. Having said that, I’d hesitate to call the Auris “green”. Toyota manufactures the Prius (the poster car for treehuggers everywhere) as well as the Aygo, which is arguably even greener than any of their hybrid cars, so the marque can lay claim to more eco credentials than most, but the Auris does little to challenge the status quo in terms of eco-friendliness.
All emissions data from: vcacarfueldata.org.uk and dft.gov.uk
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Comments
I think its awesome that you were invited to the launch event. A great opportunity for making the media, and S Africans in general, aware of green motoring options! Also enjoyed your balanced review and that you didn’t feel pressured into flaunting it’s “green” credentials. What speed were you going to get the R350 fine?
Didn’t I ever tell you that they start trapping at 132 Carl?!! ;0)
Great article…time for Car Magazine to start checking out this site, I think!!
Nice review!