What is so smart about SMART cars?

Well we haven’t had a comment (or a reader) since August, so maybe it’s time to spice things up a bit. Let’s talk cars for a moment.

Both of the cars shown above (pictures taken from edmunds.com) are hideously ugly and would most likely provide little to no safety protection should you get in a horrific accident. One of the cars above gets 33 miles per gallon in the city and 41 miles per gallon highway and will set you back at least $14,000. The other car gets over 50 miles per gallon in either scenario and you could pick one up for less than a grand ($1,000). Did I mention that both are hideously ugly?

Well for all the luxury of a 1994 Geo Metro and only $13,000 more you too can own a SMART Car. So, what exactly is it that has environmentally minded folks rushing to their nearest SMART car dealer to take one home?

Lower Emissions

The smart fortwo is also classified as an Ultra-Low Emission Vehicle (ULEV) due to its extremely low exhaust emissions. The catalytic converter is positioned close to the engine for a quick response. An electric pump blows fresh air into the exhaust port when the engine is cold to almost completely oxidize the carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbons (HC) and render them harmless.

The above quote, taken from the smartcar website on “ecology,” implies that the car produces few gasses that are destructive compounds. When we think about car emissions, we are concerned primarily with two sorts of compounds NOx’s and VOC’s. NOx compounds are any nitrogen-oxygen molecules, such as NO2 (nitrogen dioxide), N2O (nitrous oxide), and NO (Nitric oxide). These compounds are quite active in the photochemical (that is to say chemical reactions involving solar energy) reactions that produce ozone. VOC’s are a much more diverse and complicated groups that can be best described as hydrocarbon byproducts of fossil fuel combustion. They are produced from imperfections in your gasoline and incomplete combustion of the gasoline fuel itself.



So the SMART car reduces VOC emissions but not NOx emissions. Why is this important? Well, as many frustrated city engineers have found reducing VOC’s without reducing NOx’s can lead to increases in total ozone! Take a gander at the chart to the right (taken from this website) and see why.

The x axis shows the concentration of VOC’s and the y axis shows the concentration of NOx’s. The curves on the graph show the amount of ozone formed from the amount of VOC and NOx indicated on the axes. Take a set value of VOC say 0.5, draw a vertical line on the chart in your mind. Depending on how much NOx you start with, increasing or decreasing the concentration of NOx can increase or decrease total ozone. Thus we must be careful to reduce both when we reduce emissions.

Recycling
SMART car prides itself on its ability to be recycled. But as far as our waste stream goes, cars are probably some of the most well recycled and reused components. Consider what happens when a car goes to a junkyard, the electronics are removed to be resold, any working components of the car are removed to be sold as spare parts, any and all residual metal is compressed and sent to Asia for recycling – all that is left is plastic, fabric and foam. So any improvements to car design would have to pertain to those waste products primarily.

Ecofriendly Construction
Another major waste from car construction and use are the fluids, paints and chemicals applied to the upholstery of the interior. It appears as if the SMART car takes all of these things into effect in its construction, but details as to what exactly they do (aside from using less solvents in the painting process) are lacking on the website.

I can’t see what’s so smart about a SMART car, that hasn’t been done before. But perhaps someone out there can? This is something that strikes me as "trying to be green" just to sell a product, with little positive environmental impact.