Alternative Fuels, Efficient Cars, Greener Drivers

Sometimes we just have to drive on our own, without sharing the drive with someone else and there is no way of avoiding it. The car is, for some of us, a necessary evil. Rather than feeling guilty about it, let’s explore the alternatives that might be cheaper or greener or indeed both. In this section three different aspects of driving will be explored: alternative fuel, better cars and greener drivers.

Alternative fuels

There is a host of alternative fuels available to us today. The first option is the cheapest of all: if you have a diesel engine car and you are on talking terms with your local chippy why not ask and see if you can take their used oil off their hands and use it in your car. Yes, it really does work and you can learn more from the enthusiasts’ run and maintained journey for ever website. The more tried and tested approach supported by Directgov is the use of either bioethanol or biodiesel. Both can be used in existing cars without any modification. To learn about biofuels visit the Renewable Fuel Agency and to find out where the biodisel filling stations are located visit the biodiesel filling stations webpage. Unfortunately no similar resource was found for the bioethanol option, so watch this space in the future. 

Another option is converting your existing vehicle into LPG (liquid petroleum gas) or buy already converted one. To find out more about LPG visit the drive LPG website. The location of LPG stations throughout the UK is available to download from the LPG map.

The last two groups of vehicles that we will touch on are electric and hybrid cars. Electric cars are powered by electricity either generated by photovoltaics (PV) mounted on the roof of the vehicle or simply plugging into the mains to top up the battery. To learn more about electric cars visit the Green Car Site. Various companies such as Mitsubishi and Nissan are producing electric cars, whilst others such as Toyota (producing electric, hybrid and working on solar powered car), Honda and Lexus specialising in Hybrid cars. Hybrid car has a petrol engine and powerful sets of batteries. The car usually starts on the petrol and, when driving in slow speeds, turns over to the electric power. The battery is topped up by the otherwise wasted energy when braking.

In most cases, when using an alternative fuel vehicle you can be exempt from the London Congestion Charge. For more information visit the Powershift website.