Unveiling its global green program for 2016, Nissan has announced that it has saved 50m kgs of CO2 emissions in Europe. The figures show the critical role played by electric vehicles in reducing emissions and helping clean up European cities and improve life quality.
The data has been gathered from the 41,000 pure-electric Nissan LEAFs that are being driven in Europe.
Vehicles are playing an ever-more-prominent role in how healthy our cities will be in the future. Today, there are around one billion vehicles on the roads. Experts believe that this figure will climb to 2.5 billion by 2050. At present, CO2 emissions worldwide are already estimated at 600 million tons, so hybrid and electric vehicles will have a key role to play.
The Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE) has released figures that suggest that replacing 1,000 vehicles in a city with electric equivalents can cut CO2 emissions by over 2,000 tons and greenhouse-gas emissions by over 30,000 kg a year.
This would have the added benefit of massively cutting noise pollution. That’s because the LEAF and the e-NV200, Nissan's zero-emission vehicles, are quieter than a ceiling fan.
Paul Willcox, Chairman for Nissan Europe, said, "With our Global Green Program, Nissan is leading by example. In the last fiscal year, we proposed solutions to reduce CO2 emissions by 50,000 tons.
“It really is possible to put in place efficient and sustainable mobility models that prevent pollutant emissions, protect the environment and also meet the individual, collective and business transport needs of today's society.
"As a result, Europe's best-selling pure-electric vehicle, the Nissan LEAF and the e-NV200, our zero-emissions van, which can be used by a wide range of businesses, offers a fantastic option for people across Europe.”
Nissan’s ultra-green cars have obvious environmental benefits, but they can also help buyers out with the cost of motoring, too. Electric vehicles have been shown to reduce maintenance costs by 40% and cut spending on fuel by up to 400%.
The Nissan LEAF was launched in late 2010, the Japanese manufacturer’s first all-electric, zero-emission car. Five years on, the Nissan LEAF is the world’s top zero-emission model with over 175,000 sales.
The result of this is that Nissan has single-handedly avoided the release of 266 million kg of CO2 into the atmosphere. It would take 19 million trees to neutralise such a figure.
Nissan continued with its environmental commitment in 2014 when it launched the totally electric e-NV200 van. Using the LEAF’S award-winning propulsion system, the van leads its segment for useful load capacity.
Howards Group is an authorised Nissan retailer in the south west of England. Call in soon to our Weston-Super-Mare showroom to test drive the Nissan LEAF.