With petrol now more expensive per litre than Evian mineral water in many service stations, motorists are looking for instant fixes to their rising fuel bills. However, even the most ambitious manufacturers doubt they will have hydrogen cars in the showrooms before 2007 and there is nowhere to fill them up. The fuel cell is even further away and probably won’t be more than a sci-fi fantasy on production cars before 2020. So what is the solution?
The most straightforward route is to choose a diesel engine. Diesel sales have soared in recent months. They are up by 5.2% so far this year compared with 2004 and have a market share of 35% of all new car sales, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. Alternatively, Toyota and Honda offer hybrid petrol-electric models, which use less fuel than some conventional engines.
Other car makers look set to follow suit. Mercedes last week unveiled concept hybrid versions — one petrol, one diesel — of its forthcoming S-class saloons that could make their way into showrooms by 2007 and reduce fuel consumption by between 20% and 25%.
To really cut fuel bills, though, you could try going entirely electric, provided you don’t mind also cutting your top speed to about 40mph. The Reva G-Wiz (see opposite), manufactured in India and distributed by Goingreen (www.goingreen.co.uk), is the only mass-produced and affordable electric car — although Citroën has an electric version of its Berlingo van — currently on sale in the UK.
When fully charged (which takes six hours when plugged into the mains) the G-Wiz can travel for up to 40 miles, depending on the temperature and driving conditions. With electricity costing around £1-£1.50 per charge, this works out at less than 4p per mile, compared with about 11p per mile for a basic-model petrol Ford Mondeo or 27p for a Ferrari 430, based on petrol prices at £4 per gallon.
Goingreen has seen interest grow since it started selling the G-Wiz in May 2004 and sales now total 250, with another 50 vehicles on order. Each one costs less than £8,000 and can certainly claim to be the most economical car on British roads, especially in London, where it is exempt from the £8 congestion charge and parking is free in some boroughs, including the City of Westminster. Goingreen estimates the car could save a commuter who has to drive into London every day £6,000 a year.
For those who still want power and performance, not to mention electric windows (the G-Wiz has old-fashioned sliding ones), comfortable rear seats and the ability to travel more than a few miles without having to look for a handy roadside electrical socket, converting your car to run on liquid petroleum gas (LPG) could be a less drastic option.
The government has now abandoned the PowerShift grant scheme, which offered motorists money towards the conversion, and companies usually charge between £1,000 and £2,000 for the adaptation, depending on make and model. But LPG prices are less than half those of petrol at around 40p per litre, thanks largely to the 5p per litre fuel duty (compared to about 47p for petrol).
An estimated 125,000 British cars now run on LPG, which cuts carbon dioxide emissions by between 15% and 20% compared with petrol, and availability is no longer a big drawback: 1,300 stations sell it — about 13% of the total number — and most areas are covered. A list of the UK’s LPG fuel stations and conversions specialists is available on www.boostlpg.co.uk.
LPG is also available widely on the Continent, particularly in Italy, Holland, France and Germany, although finding LPG pumps in Spain can be a problem. It is also against the law for train operators to carry LPG cars through the Channel tunnel, but the situation is under review. On the plus side many LPG cars are exempt from the London congestion charge (information is available from the Energy Saving Trust, www.est.org.uk).
If you’d prefer to escape dependence on disappearing fossil fuels altogether (the electricity driving the G-Wiz comes from power stations burning fossil fuels, after all) you can join the growing ranks of people running their diesel cars on biodiesel made from crops such as oilseed rape and sunflower seeds. While biodiesel is currently sold as a 5% blend with conventional diesel at an increasing number of fuel stations in Britain, some motorists are making their own 100% biodiesel or buying it from independent manufacturers to run their diesel cars, with few problems being reported.
Green Fuels, a biodiesel technology specialist, has been selling DIY biodiesel production kits from its base near Malmesbury, Wiltshire, for about 18 months. “Sales have gone ballistic in the past few weeks,” says James Hygate, managing director. “This is a perfectly legal fuel. It’s available at 2,000 petrol stations in Germany and I’ve been running my Audi A6 on it for over a year.”
Prices start from £4,106 for a kit that can produce biodisel in 150-litre batches using a process that involves mixing heated vegetable oil with other chemicals and filtering off the end product. The cost is about 55p per litre, including duty of 27p per litre (those producing their own fuel need to register with Customs and Excise and pay tax on what they make).
The only technical risk could be to your car warranty because many manufacturers are unwilling to sanction biodiesel in their engines. Some converts argue that pure vegetable oil can work just as well, although for long-term use this requires an extra tank, as conventional diesel is still needed to start the engine and run it until it’s warm. Even fewer car makers, if any, are happy to endorse this alternative.
If it all sounds like too much hassle, the simplest fuel-saving alternative is to share the load. Websites such as www.liftshare.co.uk will link you up with people making similar journeys and you can take it in turns to drive, instantly halving your fuel bills. Liftshare, which was started by a Bristol University student in 1997, now has more than 87,000 members.
The company makes its money by charging companies and local authorities for setting up lift-share websites on their behalf, which means the service is free to users. All you do is enter your details and the journey you want to make and you’ll be matched to other members making a similar journey who you can then contact via e-mail.
“In the last three months the number of registrations has doubled,” says Imogen Martineau, development manager for Liftshare. “We are now getting more than 100 people signing up every day.”
DEAN TRUBY — BIODIESEL
Dean Truby travels about 1,400 miles every week and was getting through 65 gallons of fuel driving up and down the country in his Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van.
“I worked out I was spending at least £7,000 a year on diesel,” says Truby, 37, a specialist renderer from Devon. “I started looking for alternatives and came across Green Fuels, which was selling make-your-own biodiesel kits, and decided to give it a try. I now make biodiesel for about 50p per litre. And it would be a lot less if it wasn’t for the 27p tax.”
Truby, who is registered with Customs and Excise as a fuel producer, has run his van on biodiesel for several months and claims to have had no problems. “You could say I’m a green white van man,” he says.
He buys waste food oil from a specialist collector for about 13p per litre then, using the kit from Green Fuels, he heats the oil before mixing it with a small amount of methanol and sodium hydroxide to separate off the waste and glycerine. The mixture is left to settle for a couple of hours before the biodiesel is syphoned through a filter into a storage container and is ready for use.
Truby, who is married with two sons, now plans to sell his excess to recoup his outlay and is considering running the family 4x4 on biodiesel. “The only time I ever go to the petrol station these days is to buy a Mars bar,” he says.
CATARINA SACADURA — ELECTRIC
Catarina Sacadura was looking for a way to save money and help the environment when she happened upon the G-Wiz electric car and fell “instantly in love” with its little goggle eyes and Postman Pat-van profile. She sold her Rover 216 two months ago, bought the £7,400 G-Wiz from Goingreen and believes she has cut her fuel bills from £60 per month to about £5.
“I commute 12 miles per day and using public transport would mean going into central London and out again,” says Sacadura, 29, a psychologist from Lewisham, east London. “This is much better. I simply charge the car overnight and as I don’t need to drive on motorways I’m not bothered about speed. I can park it for free just off Leicester Square, and it’s congestion charge exempt. And if I take the wrong road the car has such a tiny turning circle I can do a quick U-turn and head back the other way. It’s the perfect city car.”
Some car parks will even allow her to recharge the car for free. “You get a lot of attention,” says Sacadura. “People are always asking about my car. It’s quite fun.”
JEFF GORECKI — LPG
Jeff Gorecki, 44, a print manager from Southampton, got fed up with paying high fuel costs for his daily commute to London, which he estimated to be costing him £9,000 a year. So he clubbed together with two workmates with whom he now shares the driving and bought a 1998 Daewoo Leganza for £4,200.
A Southampton-based firm called Drive By Gas converted it to LPG for about £1,000 and each of the three now pays £2,000 a year towards the running costs. The LPG is 43p a litre, half the cost of unleaded, and although it is a slightly less efficient fuel, Gorecki says the car averages about 39mpg. “It’s a big saving,” he says. “For me there’s no viable public transport alternative so, knowing I have to drive, it’s the logical solution. It ’s a good way to save money and it’s a clean fuel, so everybody wins.”
KELLY STONE/MARK HENEGHAN — CAR SHARE
Mark Heneghan, 24, resented spending £15-£20 a week getting to work. He also hated sitting in traffic on his own but, having been let down by too many late or cancelled buses, he had given up on public transport.
Then someone suggested car sharing. His employer, Chester city council, operates a car-share scheme in conjunction with Liftshare, so Heneghan put his details into the website and was paired up with fellow council worker Kelly Stone, 23, who was also making the daily trek from Broughton, north Wales, to Chester. The pair now take it in turns to drive and have cut their fuel bills in half.
“The council wants to encourage car sharing so we also get free parking in the staff car park,” says Heneghan. “That saves us another £2.50 per day as well.”
