Peugeot e-208 tops 84 cars in ADAC's 2024 Ecotest, Model 3 ranks fourth

ADAC (Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club, aka the General German Automobile Club) just released its Ecotest for 2024 and it's unsurprisingly dominated by electric cars. The only non-EV in the top ten is the plug-in hybrid Toyota Prius.

The test ranked 84 total cars on their environmental impact, considering both direct emissions during driving and indirect ones - from electricity production for charging.

Stellantis secured the top three spots with the Peugeot e-208 156 in first, the e-308 in second, and the Opel Corsa in third.

The e-208 and e-308 had excellent 16.0 kWh/62 miles and 16.5 kWh/62 miles, respectively, and even combined with the emissions to produce the electricity to charge them, the pair produces just 80 and 82 grams of CO₂ per kilometer. The Tesla Model 3, the largest car in the top five, was fourth with a consumption of 17.2 kWh/62 miles and just 86 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer.

Let's break down the numbers. ADAC awards up to 60 points for low CO₂ emissions - the greenhouse gas that drives climate change - and up to 50 points for other pollutants - carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particles- harmful to humans. For instance, increased nitrogen oxide readings were the reason for bans on some diesel cars in some German cities.

So why does ADAC rate EVs for CO₂ emissions when they don't have an exhaust? It's because of the well-to-wheel (WTW) metric used by the ADAC - it measures how much energy (including CO₂) was used to produce the fuel (be it electricity, petrol, or gas).

The cars that got the most points for low-CO₂ emissions are generally the best in the Ecotest - the top five are the same. Meanwhile, interestingly, the cars with the full 50 points for their other pollutants were all non-EVs, like the VW Golf 1.5 TSI or the VW Passat 2.0 TDI. That's due to their efficient exhaust gas purification. ADAC's test singled out VW's Passat Variant 2.0 TDI for its extremely low proportion of pollutants in its exhaust gases and its impressive 5 liters of diesel per 100 kilometers.

The Federal Motor Transport Authority notes that 380,600 electric cars were registered in Germany in 2024 - a stark decline from the 524,200 units in 2023. It shows that the abolition of the state environmental bonus clearly impacted buyers.

ADAC Ecotest 2024

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