Green cars

From Greenlivingpedia, a wiki on green living, building and energy

The freedom and autonomy offered by cars has largely become an accepted part of life for many in developed countries. However, cars with internal combustion engines consume a lot of fuel and emit greenhouse gases.

Some tips for green motoring include:

• Accelerate gently - rapid acceleration uses more fuel
• Don't carry too much spare equipment in your car - extra weight burns more fuel
• Keep your car motor tuned - a poorly tuned car can use a lot more fuel
• Inflate your tyres a bit higher than the manufacturer's rating and keep them inflated. Under inflated tyres can increase your fuel consumption by 5% or more, and manufacturers understate tyre pressures in favour of ride comfort.
• Keep your car for five years or more. Buying a new car frequently requires more cars to be made, and every car represents a lot of "embodied energy" used to make it.
• Don't use your car unless you have to - take public transport or ride a bike instead.

If you are buying a new car:

• Don't buy it if you don't really need it!
• Buy the most fuel efficient car you can afford that suits your purpose.
• Hybrid petrol/electic cars use less fuel than normal petrol cars
• Diesel engines are more efficient than petrol ones - some have fuel consumption figures as good as hybrids. Some diesels can also use diesel biofuel made from plant oils.
• Buy an electric car. Some models can travel over 150km between recharges.
• Consider whether a fuel efficient scooter would do instead.
• Buy an Air Car when they become available

If you already own a petrol car:

• an LPG conversion enables you to use cheaper LPG (liquid petroleum gas), but note that most LPG is a byproduct of oil refining, so when oil supplies dwindles the price of LGP will rise along with petrol and diesel.
• an CNG conversion enables you to use CNG (compressed natural gas), which is more abundant than crude oil reserves, but there are currently very few refuelling locations available in Australia, largely due to inadequate government policies to establish them. There are several active lobbyists attempting to change this. See Rosetta Moon for more information. There is a single semi public CNG refueling station located in North Melbourne

Picture shows refueling a converted CNG vehicle in North Melbourne back in 2003.

[image:http://web.archive.org/web/20031030152724/www.lovingearth.org/ozfuelcells/images/lee_holmes_tx_training.JPG|thumb|right|2003]

Currently there are no CNG passengers vehicle being offered in Australia. However, just about all of the large auto manufacturers are now producing CNG Vehicles. Of particular interest is Honda, who now offers their Civic GX with a home CNG refueling device. Latest news from Fuel Maker is that they are working on setting up distribution in Australia. It should be noted that the Honda Civic GX has been named the world's greenist vehicle 5 years running.

Gallery

The Blade electric motor	The Blade Getz	Solar taxi	Solar taxi
Solar challenge electric vehicle	Aptera vehicle

External links

• Blade Electric Vehicles - electric car conversions for new and used cars.
• The Green Vehicle Guide (GVG) - provides information about the environmental performance of new light vehicles (up to 3.5 tonnes gross vehicle mass) sold in Australia. The GVG can help you to choose a cleaner car.
• greenercars.org - is the official website for American Council for an energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) Green Book which is a consumer resource providing Green Scores rating the environmental friendliness of every vehicle on United States market.
• Electric car uses sun to show watts driving the future, The Age
• MDI Air Car
• Wikipedia:Alternative fuel vehicle
• Wikipedia:List of 2007 hybrid vehicles
• Earth hour or peak hour?, The Sydney Morning Herald. 10 ideas to stop your car costing the earth.
• 100 miles per gallon or bust! CNET News.com