Filed under: Green Culture, Bugatti, Ferrari, Rolls Royce, Green Daily, UK, USA
Does Simon Cowell own the least eco-friendly fleet of cars in the world?
City Car Club, a carshare operator established in 2000 and based in the U.K. operates a fleet of vehicles including many Honda Civic Hybrids. The carshare group recently polled celebrities to find out what kind of vehicles they drive. Afterwards, the average CO2 emissions of their fleets were summed up and the celebs were ranked. The worst of the worst turns out to be Simon Cowell, the judge you know and love from American Idol. Apparently, the Bugatti Veyron, Ferrari F430 and Rolls Royce Phantom in his garage average 457 g/km of CO2, with the Veyron emitting the most at a whopping 574 g/km. 
Jay Kay, "that bloke what wears daft stuff on his head" and frontman for the funk band Jamiroquai comes in at second place, followed by soccer star David Bekham. We're not really sure just how exhaustive the City Car Club's list is, but check out the Celebrity emissions offenders
1 Simon Cowell
Average carbon emissions 457g/km
Cars owned Bugatti Veyron, Ferrari F430, Rolls-Royce Phantom
2 Jay Kay
Average carbon emissions 444g/km
Cars owned Bentley S1 Continental, Ferrari Enzo, Rolls-Royce Phantom
3 David Beckham
Average carbon emissions 421g/km
Cars owned Bentley Arnage, Bentley Continental GT, Hummer H2, Lamborghini Gallardo
4 Rowan Atkinson
Average carbon emissions 398 g/km
Cars owned Aston Martin DB7 Vantage, Audi A8, Bugatti Veyron
5 50 Cent
Average carbon emissions 394.5g/km
Cars owned Hummer H2, Rolls-Royce Phantom
6 Rio Ferdinand
Average carbon emissions 379g/km
Cars owned Bentley Arnage, Bentley Continental, BMW X5, Cadillac Escalade
7 Steven Gerrard
Average carbon emissions 361g/km
Cars owned Aston Martin Vanquish, Bentley Continental, BMW X5, Porsche 911 Turbo
8 Kerry Katona
Average carbon emissions 359.5g/km
Cars owned Aston Martin Vantage, Lamborghini Gallardo, Porsche 911 Turbo, Range Rover
9 Wayne Rooney
Average carbon emissions 308g/km
Cars owned Aston Martin Vanquish, BMW X5, Mercedes CLK, Porsche 911 Turbo
[Source: What Car]
10 Justin Timberlake
Average carbon emissions 287g/km
Cars owned Audi TT, Jeep Wrangler, Range Rover
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
A.Brien 11:26AM (5/02/2008)
These richs could have invested instead in small scale algae bio-diesel small factory of 2-3 employees.
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rgseidl 12:52PM (5/02/2008)
Owning a car that emits a lot of CO2 per mile doesn't mean that it actually gets driven a lot. I don't look to celebutards for advice on what car to buy - much less general environmental leadership - anyhow, so this article just strikes me as a backhanded way of complaining about how rich they are.
These people thrive on the oxygen publicity, so if you disapprove of their behavior, just stop publishing articles on them. Really, outside of SoCal, nobody really cares what they're up to.
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BlackbirdHighway 1:31PM (5/02/2008)
Interesting that they only rated cars, when so many of these folks have jets. One jet probably emits about as much as 100 cars.
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BlackbirdHighway 1:35PM (5/02/2008)
I just looked it up: John Travolta's Boeing 707 goes 6000 miles on 23,000 gallons of fuel, so that's about 3.8 gallons per mile. I'd say he easily has all these guys beat!
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RG 2:06PM (5/02/2008)
No thanks. I'd rather just have those high polluting masterpieces of the automotive world.
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Wave54 2:17PM (5/02/2008)
This article seems pointless without including the figures for some of the ordinary cars that ply the roads every day -- cars that are not new and superbly maintained.
I'll make an educated guess that the 80s-vintage large American land yachts and the riced-out Hondas and Camaros that race around US streets every day are far worse.
Would Jay Leno's classic car collection come in cleaner? I doubt it.
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e 4:09PM (5/02/2008)
Simon Cowell = Total Wank*r
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Kevin Nugent 10:41PM (5/02/2008)
Just because they won them doe snot mean that they drive them everyday . For those who don't know the bugatti veyron cost more than 2 million us dollars , so do you think simon is driving that car everyday to the local supermarket ??? I think not , to add to that most celebs have these cars to say that they can afford the finer things in life and occasionally turn out the cars to maximum (250 mph) . You know its just one of those things you do every once in a while.
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GenWaylaid 2:44AM (5/03/2008)
I doubt Cowell's the worst celebrity. If everything in Jay Leno's garage was run for five minutes, the Earth would probably be noticeably warmer.
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cowbell 8:22AM (5/05/2008)
I love imagining Mr. Bean driving a Veyron.
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Aaron 1:12PM (7/31/2008)
Every person on that list has a right to own what ever kind of car or cars they want. Just because you bunch of tree huggers have bought into the Al Gore hoax doesn't mean everyone has. Get over it and yourselves. Guess What? Simon Cowell's car has tires that cost $22,550 EACH. Go on cry about that.
Or how about the Oil guy in Saudia Arabia that just put his Lamborghini on a JET (OMG!), flew it to Great Britan and back, just for an oil change. Guess he didn't have the right to do that either? BOO HOO.
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zingbot 11:37PM (5/11/2009)
And suppose Cowell drives that Bugatti about 500 to 1000 miles this year, but you drive your eco-friendly care 15,000 to 28,000 miles to work do to every day use. Who pollutes more? It's not Simon. Most people that own these cars buy them for collectors items, to look at and take occasional thrill rides with them. It's not like it's his every day car. I am all for the environment, but the critical tree huggers need to get a brain and a clue.
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