Other green car options
So, even though we bought a secondhand Prius to replace our old car, what were our other options?
Fuel-efficient petrol cars
The less petrol you use, the fewer greenhouse-gas emissions you create. Buying a fuel-efficient car is the easiest green choice for cars now, as the fuel-efficiency is marked on a sticker on all new cars sold in Australia, as is the amount of pollution it will create per 100km. However, it’s not the only way to make a greener choice when buying a car.
Diesel
Hybrid cars work at their best in city trafffic - but if you do a lot of country driving, diesel could be the way to go instead. Diesel is fuel-efficient, and it also creates fewer greenhouse-gas emissions than petrol does. However, it also creates more air-pollution than petrol or LPG, in the form of particulates and nitrogen oxides, and a diesel vehicle is usually more expensive to buy than an equivalent petrol car.
Bio-diesel
Bio-diesel is made by creating a chemical reaction between vegetable oil or animal fat and alcohol, so it’s from sources that are renewable as opposed to fossil-fuels like diesel, petrol and LPG. However, it still has to be blended with diesel and many car manufacturers will not guarantee the performance of their cars when biodiesel makes up more than 5% of the fuel mix.
LPG
LPG is an attractive option because it’s cheaper than petrol and creates fewer greenhouse-gas emissions. You can also get rebates from both state and federal government on the cost of converting an old car to run on LPG. It’s less polluting than diesel, although I couldn’t find any info on how it compares to petrol in this regard. The disadvantage is that it uses more fuel than petrol. It’s a good option for some people, and you can use the RAC website’s LPG calculator to see if it would suit you.
In the end…
…what it comes down to is that Australia has a pretty limited range of cars that cause less damage to the environment. Setting fuel-efficiency standards for all types of vehicles (plus some rebates or incentives for the cars that do better than those standards) would go a long way to reduce the damage we do to the environment by driving. I could get started on how public transport, biking and walking are also made more difficult than they have to be, but that’s a rant for another day 
If you’re interested in the future of transport in Australia, check out the Alternative Fuels Australia blog. It’s well written and covers the different fuel options available around Australia, and how they’re used, with news and updates.
September 26th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
I’d like to see some enviro options for people who like big fat V8s. I know you can convert them to LPG, but wouldn’t it be good to see some hot muscle cars that run on electricity? I’m sure it’s only the propaganda that says you lose performance. It’s certainly a niche in the market that is being overlooked. It’d be great to not equate the car culture with pollution.
In the mean time, I’ll just borrow your Prius
September 26th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Agreed - there’s a real lack of variety at the moment. Nothing for V8s, but nothing that’s the equivalent of a little Barina either… I realise a mid-sized car is the obvious place to start, but it’s time to branch out!
We’ll have to take you and Louis for a spin in the Prius sometime
In the meanwhile, I reckon you’ll like the Alt Fuels blog linked in the post - the guy really keeps up with the news in the cars/transport area.
September 26th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
Hi, Nathan from Alternative Fuels Australia here - thanks for the link, I’m never opposed to hearing nice things said about me.
Congrats on buying a Prius, they’re a nice little car. A lot of people overlook the value of used cars, especially when considering the environment (since it takes a lot of energy and waste to build a new car). Anyway, just thought I might try and answer a couple of your questions:
- LPG uses more fuel per km (generally 50% more) than petrol, but it emits less greenhouse gases and other pollutants like NOx and particulates. Hybrids do better than both, though. Take a look at the Australian Greenhouse Office’s report into it if you’re interested in the numbers.
- Ethanol’s power credentials are overlooked, usually. A V8 tuned for ethanol would get more power than the same car running on petrol. Unfortunately the federal government won’t let service stations sell more than 10% ethanol, and car makers won’t make cars that take more than 10% ethanol - a depressing cycle.
Good luck with your site, I’ll make sure to keep an eye on it.
September 26th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Hi Nathan - thanks for the extra info there! I’ll admit that cars, engines and fuel aren’t my strong point, so it’s good to have somewhere to go for more info
It’s annoying that people here can’t just try ethanol out and decide for themselves - experiences overseas would indicate that it’s an interesting option, at the very least, and worth a shot.
October 2nd, 2007 at 1:45 pm
Thanks for the info Nathan I have downloaded that light car report and checked out your blog - looks really interesting.
In other news, since Utie the Ute cracked it’s head, we’ve been borrowing a mates diesel 4×4. It’s an old Patrol. Last night, we had to put more diesel in it and rang our mate to see if he used bio-diesel. Apparently, the bio-diesel is good for the car, cleaning out the fuel tank. The flip side is that all the crud that was in the tank gets cleaned out but then gets trapped in the fuel filter, so you wind up having to change the fuel filter more often and other problems can develop due to the higher water content of bio-diesel as compared to diesel. I’ve heard it’s not good for the older cars, but fine for the newer ones.
Just passing on what I heard so it could be a load of crap. Correct me if you want
October 2nd, 2007 at 1:50 pm
Did you decide to give the bio-diesel a go? I think Gull stations have it. I’ve also heard the fuel filter needs to be changed more often, but have no idea if that’s a difficult thing to do or not.
October 3rd, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Well, it’s not our car, so we called and asked our mate what to use. He doesn’t use Bio-Diesel, and because it’s an old car (1988) it’s probably not a good idea, so we stuck to the Diesel. After all, that’s nearly 20 years of crud in the fuel tank.
Dunno anything about changing the fuel filter, I can only imagine it would be a pain in the butt.
July 28th, 2008 at 4:23 am
Hey guys, great posts! You know, it’s a good thing that car manufacturers are all in the war of making more energy efficient cars. And that means that the consumer is the one that wins out of this one.
Thanks for the great article about greener cars