Cross Hybrid wins as a Toyota

GREEN: THERE'S NO DENYING IT'S FUEL EFFICIENT

- Brendan Seery

I have always been a bit of a cynic when it comes to NEVs... for those not up with the latest marketing buzzwords, these are New Energy Vehicles, ranging from pure electric to those with hybrid propulsion systems of internal combustion engines combined with electric motors and batteries.

When the first NEV, Toyota's Prius hybrid hit the market, I was underwhelmed. I wrote back then that, if you really wanted to save the planet by reducing your carbon footprint, you'd do more by taking the then R400 000 cost of the Prius and buying thousands of tree saplings with the money.

Those trees would be pretty tall now and would be doing a good job of removing CO2 from the atmosphere and converting it into lovely, free oxygen.

I believed then, and I still do (to an extent), that NEVs are more about marketing than science. At the same time, I do not dismiss the dangers of climate change.