The diesel car with one hundredth the emissions of a Toyota Prius

A team of French students has built a single-seat diesel-powered car with CO2 emmisions of 0.88g/km – less than one per cent of that produced the most recent Toyota Prius hybrid (89g/km).

The car competed in the Shell Eco marathon in Germany earlier this month and achieved an impressive 8,372mpg – the equivalent of driving from London to Rome on one litre of fuel.

The hyper-efficient car was built by a team of French students called La Joliverie Projet Microjule.

Which cars have the lowest CO2?

Volvo last year revealed details of a plug-in diesel hybrid, which is to go on sale in two years. The car is able to cover around 31 miles on battery power alone and Volvo claims the it will do 124mpg and have CO₂ emissions of 50g/km; a signicant improvememt on the 2010 Toyota Prius, which emits only 89g/km.

One year later, in 2013, the Volvo will be joined by the Volkswagen L1, a two-seater hybrid car that able to travel 283 miles on one gallon of fuel and has a CO2 figure of 39g/km.

Basing our figures on CO₂ emissions per passenger, per km in 2007/2008, we have compared the Toyota Prius, Volvo hybrid, VW L1 and the Eco marathon ICE class winner against public transport in London.

A spokesperson for the Environmental Transport Association (ETA) said: “It is widely assumed that the greatest environmental gains will come from electric cars, but super-efficient hybrids can deliver energy savings in the short term.”