What emitted more carbon? Lamborghini or Prius?
An unlikely comparison that ultimately proves nothing. But here you are, reading my tosh.
It's a silly question on the face of it, really. It's obvious; the Lamborghini belches far more emissions per kilometre when compared with the bastion of social politeness that is the Toyota Prius.
This article isn't to posit that somehow emissions are somehow not a concern, or that owning a Lamborghini isn't effectively purchasing your own little loud cloud of smog. Instead, I was only curious on how the case-use of these vehicles would have affected how much tailpipe emissions they contributed over their lives.
Think of it as just a little thought experiment.
Off the top of my head, I selected two cars of age; a 2018 Lamborghini Aventador and a random 2018 Toyota Prius from the Australian car-seller website www.carsales.com.au.
I punched these cars into the Australian Green Vehicle Guide website to see how these vehicles were rated in terms of emissions per kilometre. From this guide, I found that a 2018 Toyota Prius emits a tooting 80 grams of carbon per kilometre, while a 2018 Lamborghini Aventador vulgarly butt-trumpets an astonishing 370 grams of carbon per kilometre. Of course there is a slight matter of consumption as well, along with the fact that the Government's Green Vehicle Guide site doesn't account for how the actual driving style would inflate that room-clearing emissions number.
Again, this is just something I was curious about. Apropos of nothing.
We can look at stats like grams per kilometre, or annual tonnage of carbon, but what happens when we review the total volume of a specific vehicle? An Aventador travels significantly fewer kilometres than a Prius over its lifetime (usually), so therefore a car that travels 5000km may actually churn out less pollution than one that travels 60,000.
Reviewing the afore-mentioned carsales.com.au, I found an example of a 2018 Lamborghini Aventador that had travelled 7873km, and a 2018 Toyota Prius that had whizzed along 59,429km.
If we plug these numbers into the comprehensive calculator that we find on the back of every napkin, over the course of their respective lifetimes the Lamborghini emitted 2.9 tonnes, while the Prius over roughly the same period emitted 4.7 tonnes, simply by the simple virtue of the distance they've travelled.
So, what does this teach us? Absolutely nothing that we haven't learned before, frankly. We all know that the more we use internal combustion, the more we pollute. The harder we drive, the more we cough out. However, when I hear stories of people sneering at, or otherwise harassing supercar owners for their environmental irresponsibility, I feel there's little accounting for how these cars are used.
This was also neatly demonstrated on Top Gear, when Jeremy Clarkson compared the fuel consumption of a BMW M3 against a Toyota Prius, effectively proving that the way a car is driven accounts largely for what it consumes - and ultimately farts.
Yes, a Lamborghini emits more per kilometre, and is a vastly inefficient way to travel. I am not making a case that a Lamborghini is actually good for the environment, as Lambo owners likely have a primary vehicle for most of their travel needs - a vehicle that emits its own carbon and adds to the overall total smog.
Please note that I didn't attempt to choose the best example of a Lamborghini for sale, nor the worst example of a Prius as a means of skewing results for this comparison. I tried to pick out something in the respective middles.
I don't expect many of you, dear readers, to walk away from this piece with anything you didn't know before. I'm not expecting some kind of mind-fogging revelation on your part in where you slap your forehead and gasp, "Of course! It all makes sense! Lambos are now even more marvellous!"
I was merely curious, did some quick sums, and thought I'd share them.
Join In
Comments (3)
Given how little mileage supercars do, and how few of them there are, I doubt they contribute much to the global carbon footprint. Granted the Prius has a large manufacturing carbon footprint. But even electricity generated by all but the dirtitiest coal has a smaller carbon footprint than liquid fuels because of the thermal inefficiency of the internal combustible engine. And it doesn't take a vast amount of mileage for the Prius to offset its manufacturing footprint. Plus the Prius is a popular choice as a city minicab. So on balance I think the Prius probably has created quite a big net reduction in carbon emissions. Personally, I drive a petrol car. I've reducing my carbon footprint by keeping it running (eight years now) rather than getting a new car every three years.
The Lamborghini Aventador is literally made of carbon
When calculating emissions, are inefficiencies noted for losses from power plant fuel to actual propelling if car?