Data shows impact of driving tests on carbon emissions

Some 2.2 million kg of CO2 is created from failed driving tests, highlighting the environmental danger of ICE vehicles being used for testing instead of electric vehicles.

The data, collected by SaveOnEnergy.com, discovered the figure from 961,804 failed driving tests over a two year period from April 2019 to July 2020.

The CO2 released is the equivalent of 449 return trips from London to Melbourne, Australia or 126 million smartphone charges.

The data didn’t assess the overall impact of driving tests being taken in ICE vehicles, and only looked at failed tests, suggesting the true carbon figure from testing is much higher.

From April to June in 2019, a grand total of 210,856 tests were failed in the UK, which resulted in an estimated 48,185 kg of CO2 being produced. This is equal to the electricity used by 82.5 homes for an entire year.

Comparing this to the same months in 2020, there were only 2,816 unsuccessful tests. With the effects of coronavirus cancelling many tests, it is estimated that only 6,506 kg of CO2 was emitted in this period. The lack of driving tests proved beneficial to the environment, reducing total CO2 emissions from failed examinations in the previous year by 86.4%.



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