Eco cars the worst polluters

Some of the "greenest" cars on British roads cause more pollution than giant gas-guzzling offroaders, a study reveals. On a list of worst polluters, cars considered environmentally friendly - such as the petrol-electric hybrid Toyota Prius loved by socially conscious Hollywood stars - finish near the bottom. The findings are revealed in the November edition of What Car? magazine and are based on US research.

Researchers accept that many "green" cars push out less pollution when driven. But they argue that the energy used in building, transporting, servicing and scrapping the technically more complex vehicles means that, over their life cycle, they cause more pollution than conventional cars.

Scientists measured the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by a range of cars on sale in the UK, then added this extra pollution to give a wholelife or "dust-to-dust" energy cost rating. Best-performer was the Jeep Wrangler off-roader with a dustto-dust cost of $1.54 a km. The Toyota Prius languishes in 74th place with a dust-todust rating of $8.24, while the Honda Civic Hybrid, in 73rd place, costs $8.20 a km.