One of France's most prestigious car magazines, l'Automobile, believes that considering CO2 as the only pollutant to adapt legislation is unfair. Hence the magazine editors came up their own list that includes all pollutants coming from the exhaust pipe. The list is actually pretty harsh on small displacement diesels, which are the ones that benefit from low-CO2 legislation, because not also have Diesel Particulate Filters installed. This lack is something the new Euro V rules are fixing for introduction starting in September, but will not be fully mandatory until 2011. The magazine raised its hackles on this issue, stating that particulates coming out of diesel engines are the most important source of pollution, far ahead CO2. Nevertheless, the classification is very interesting and you can find their system and the complete list after the jump (can you spot the obvious missing car?).
How did l'Automobile create their list? Each car was given a mark from 0 to 1,000 depending on CO2 emissions: 1,000 points for 0 g/km (EV) and 0 for those producing 500 g/km. Other pollutants were rated on other scales, based on three pollutants from gasoline engines (carbon monoxyde, hydrocarbons and Nitrogen oxydes) and an additional fourth one for diesels (particulates). In order to create a fair classification, an average was made, although the magazine found no scientific method to evaluate diesels and gasoline engines together. A car that scored 500 points as an average on the pollutants scale was also Euro IV compliant. All cars available in the French market, 969 diesel and 1240 gasoline, were included in the list. The top 30 in each class are shown below.
