Car

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Cars are becoming a lot less greedy about sucking up fuel and belching out fumes, but they are not cheap. On the other hand, there are some simple driving tips that will help reduce emissions and save money on fuel, which is lucky as I can not imagine there are many of us prepared to rush out and replace our car simply to reduce emissions. On the other hand, if you have an old fuel-guzzler and are thinking of changing, it would be good for the planet and your pocket to buy as economical a car as possible. More on that later.

The simple things include checking the tyres regularly and keeping them at the right pressure, keeping the engine well tuned and serviced (new oil and filters alone make a fair difference) and not keeping the car full of unnecessary clobber. Air conditioning increases fuel consumption by up to 25%, so use sparingly. However, above about 50mph air conditioning is more fuel efficient than having the windows open, as this causes lots of turbulence.

Driving styles are important. Accelerating slowly, decelerating slowly, approaching roundabouts gently so there is more chance that you will not have to stop completely and keeping a good distance from the car in front (less braking/accelerating) should cut around 10% or £100 off fuel consumption every year.

Always try to keep your engine at between 2000 and 4000 revs, as below this range you will strain the engine and above it race it. Both these extremes burn more fuel so cost more money: the more you put your foot down the more fuel you will use, regardless of speed or acceleration.

Turn your engine off when stationary at a traffic jam etc. Most cars start easily and reliably, and the idea that starting a car takes loads of fuel is about 20 years out of date. Don’t be idle and sit there idling.

Lift sharing is a great idea, if you can find someone to share with, but always play it safe until you know the person: tell people you are lift sharing and let them know when, where and with whom. Take your phone with you and try googling the person before you go.  Visit the Lift Sharing area of the community to register your lifts or look for a share.

If you are driving alone, try and plan the journey to achieve as much as possible and make further trips unnecessary.

Fuels

Although all fuels are inherently bad, one type that is better than most is biodiesel. There is an obligation coming for all diesel sold in the UK to contain 2.5% biodiesel, rising to 10% by 2010. These B2.5 and B10 mixes, as they are known, will make a bit of a difference, but it is quite possible to run a diesel car on pure biodiesel (B100), so why not?

How about making your own biodiesel? There are several kits that have everything you need to start, apart from the oil, and you are legally allowed to make enough diesel for around 25,000 miles motoring before you have to pay any tax. Just buy the kit and get on with it.

Biodiesel can be made from either new vegetable oil or waste oil from cooking.  If using new oil, make sure it is NOT palm oil and try to buy locally grown oil if possible: rape seed oil grown in the EU is a good start. This will need to be mixed with a good dash of alcohol (ethanol or methanol) and a pinch of lye (sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide), heated to 55% and left to brew for a while. Once done, you will be left with 90% biodiesel and 10% glycerol, which will sink to the bottom. This needs to be separated and the biodiesel checked for impurities, but otherwise that is about that. A proper amount of information on all things biodiesel can be found at the Collaborative Biodiesel Tutorial.

The kit will cost from around £800 and each litre of biodiesel should cost around 50p to make (using new oil – 10p using waste oil). At £1 per litre for normal diesel and a car doing 50 miles to the gallon, this should save around £450 per 10,000 miles traveled. 

Diesel engines can run on straight vegetable oil (SVO); in fact, that is how they were originally designed back in the early 1900s. Mr Diesel invented his engine to help the poor and developing countries of the world, in as much as they could run their tractors on the oil pressed from the crops they grew. After his death (assassinated by the French government, apparently) it was found that a waste product from petrol manufacture also ran the engines, so it was immediately renamed ‘diesel’ and the vegetable oil idea was quietly buried.

The main problem with SVO is that it is a bit thick and viscous for modern engines, becoming really gloopy when it gets cold. You can buy pre-heaters to put in the fuel tank or pipes, which makes cold oil warm and runny, but you may also need to get a whole new fuel tank. It is best to try your car on SVO if you are thinking about this, and using mixes of oil and diesel may be a good idea. Read more here.

Bioethanol is the equivalent to biodiesel, but for petrol engines. It is high energy and burns very hot, which is why normal petrol engines can only use a 5% or 10% ethanol to petrol mix (E5 and E10, respectively). In Florida a few years ago I put a gallon of ethanol in an old banger to get it through the emissions test (Oh, I was a wild one back then!). This worked very well, but I had to flush the engine through with normal petrol very quickly to stop it blowing up. You can convert a petrol car to run on pure ethanol (E100) for around £500 and this should reduce ‘well to wheel’ carbon emissions by 70%.

Bioethanol comes from fermenting corn, sugar beet, sugar cane or wood to make alcohol, then distilling straight ethanol. The trouble with buying bioethanol is the source: there is a nasty habit in some developing nations of growing the feed stock crops to the detriment of natural habitats, such as rainforests. The EU is currently working out a way of ensuring that bioethanol is sustainably sourced for their future 10% biofuel requirement in all road transport fuels.

Locating fuel stations selling alternative fuels can be tricky, especially away from home. The Energy Saving Trust have a locator map showing where you can find LPG, biodiesel, bioethanol, hydrogen, natural gas and electricity plug-ins - if this doesn't work it is because they lose it from time to time, so try these to find lpg (remember patience is a virtue) or biodiesel (so is tenacity).

New ‘consumables’

Firestone makes fuel-saving tyres for most cars, Varta offer about the most environmentally friendly batteries and Zymol have a natural car polish.

New Cars

The most eco-friendly cars around at the moment are electrically powered, with some gaining much of their charge from solar panels and wind turbines. When charging the batteries from the mains, it is best to use a green tariff or you will lose much of the benefit due to power station emissions and transmission losses.

Next in the eco-stakes are hybrid cars, which run on a mixture of electrical and petrol power. These are a good compromise as the petrol engine does the high speed and high output stuff, the braking and normal energy wastage charges the batteries so that the electric engine can run the car around town.

LPG is also quite a good option as it is efficient, but it is still a fossil fuel. Finally, there are some eco-friendly versions of standard production cars from the usual suspects.

Act on CO2 has teamed up with What Car? to rate the 10 greenest cars in 14 different categories, such as SUV or small family. They also have the emissions data for all new cars and say how much road tax you will have to pay for them. If you are considering buying a new car, having a look at Road Tax Prices for a full list of all the cars for each tax band. The link takes you to the £0 tax paying Band A cars, but Band B or Band C cars at £35 a year are also worth looking at. Alternatively, What Green Car suggests that the following were the green leaders at the end of 2009:

Excellent: Riva G-Wiz and Aixam Mage (both electric and small).

Very Good: Toyota Plug-In Prius (conversion) Mark II 1.5 VVT-i E-CVT Amberjack conversion (hybrid large family car), Toyota iQ 3 door (petrol small car), Volvo C30 1.8 (petrol/bioethanol small family car)

Very Good too: Ford Fiesta 1.6 Duratorq (diesel four door hatch), Seat Ibiza 1.4 TD1 80ps (diesel four door hatch), Volvo S40 1.6D DRIVe (Diesel small family) and Volvo S50 1.6D DRIVe (small estate).

There are many more cars that get a 'Very Good' rating, but those mentioned above are the best for their types and sizes.

Interestingly, the best of the non-electrics above emit around 99g of CO₂ per km travelled, the worst around 105g. The best 'Executive' cars produce about 130 gCO₂/km, the MPV about 120 and the best SUV about 140. Older cars can produce as much as 500 gCO₂/km.

There are now a lot of diesel cars that do over 70 mpg: the best are the Smart Cars at over 80 mpg. VW, Audi, Scoda and SEAT have OK'ed the use of 100% biodiesel in all their cars between 1996 and 2004 (diesel cars, that is, obviously) and many newer ones too, but you will need a letter of approval for cars after 2004. Most other makes will not guarantee their engines if you use pure biodiesel, which I guess is mainly a concern for new cars in thier warranty period.

There are some excellent concept cars in the offing, such as ridiculous-looking electric buggies, wind powered sports cars and revolutionary new rotary engines. There appears to be lots to look forward to from most of the major manufacturers and some funky innovations from the specialist companies.

Insurance

There are several companies offering green motor insurance, which basically boil down to normal insurance plus a bit of carbon offsetting. Some also offer discounts for more efficient cars, but this may not be that ‘real’ considering the lower risk profile of environmentally aware drivers. It might also be better and cheaper to buy standard insurance and then buy your own offsets from a company you really like.

More Th>n claim to be carbon neutral as a company, which is great but may not be quite what it seems once the detail is considered, and the ETA do motor insurance with carbon offsets.  Direct Line offers discounts for eco-friendly cars, as does the Co-Op’s CIS, the Green Insurance Company and ibuyeco. Many others do as well, no doubt, but I ran out of patience trying to find them.

Breakdown cover

The Environmental Transport Association (ETA) offers cheap breakdown cover and puts forward a very green front, but it appears that there is little substance to it. It does offer carbon offsets for an additional cost, which is not particularly green, but the breakdown services do appear to be good as well as cheap.  If you want to subscribe to the breakdown cover use this link to get a 10% discount.

It may be better to compare all the breakdown services from the ETA, AA, RAC, Green Flag, More Th>n, GEM or Autonational Rescue to choose the right option for you and then go elsewhere to offset. It is all pretty quick and easy online, so there is not much hassle and has the potential for a much better outcome.

Car Clubs

Car Clubs are a great idea if you do not drive about very frequently. The basic idea is that there are new cars parked around the major cities in the UK that are owned by the car club. They are always parked in the same place, so people know where to pick them up. You join the club, book your local car online (or next nearest if that one is taken), turn up, enter your pin number to unlock it and off you go. When done, just pop it back in its parking bay.

It is in every other way just like hiring a car. The cost varies from around £4.50 an hour to £20 a day, which includes a gallon or so of petrol a day and often things like the congestion charge.

There are a few clubs about that have cars in a reasonable number of the larger towns and cities, but the best seems to be City Car Club. Whizz Go are fairly similar, but appear to have fewer cars and be more expensive. If you live in London or a growing number of other cities, Street Car are probably the cheapest option and seem excellent. They also do vans. I have not researched this too deeply, so you should make up your own mind about the best for your lifestyle and area. The government funded Car Clubs has a listing of (almost?) all the cars available in the UK through all car clubs, great or small.

The ETA do a good total cost calculator for car ownership, taking into account depreciation, insurance, maintenance etc. This will help you work out whether a car club is a good idea for you or not.

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