There's one in the Cars Guide of last Fridays Daily Telegraph:

Peugot 308 Touring - Price $ 30,590 to 38,390

Engine 1.6L 4-cylinder petrol: 7.5L/100km
         1.6L 4-cylinder petrol turbo: 8L/100km

         1.6L 4-cylinder diesel HDi turbo: 4.9L/100km
         2.0L  "                  "          "       5.7L/100km 

So thats about 40% lower fuel consomption for the diesels (in manual form), which more than offsets the fact that diesel is on average around 15% dearer (though a lot cheaper if you make your own bio-diesel)!

PS, if you want really frugal then go for a diesel hybrid. I heard something about one getting 69 mpg recently (though you still have the problem of higher cost and replacing the batteries).

pjb05 wrote on Jun 10^th, 2008 at 8:06am:


I didn't realise you could buy a diesel hybrid in Australia.  Now I'm very interested - hybrid technology plus biodiesel sounds cool.

The Peugeot 308 is a much smaller car than the Prius. The 2 Litre version would  have about the same power as the Prius, but without the low end torque. Diesels are even more sluggish that petrol vehicles in terms of low end torque. The Prius has a 1500cc engine, but with the two engines combined it's equivalent to about a 2.2 litre. The price of the Peugeot 308 2 Litre model is $38350, which is only about $110 cheaper than I would pay for a new Prius at the moment.

I'm looking at buying a new Prius when the plug-in hybrids become available in Australia, possibly late next year, but the prospect of a mid-size diesel hybrid has me interested - sounds like the way to go. I like the Peugeot 308. My youngest son drove one until very recently when a car went through a red light and totalled it. He escaped without injury.

I pay for renewable electricity, so either way is good. Our bill is slightly lower than it was for standard electricity, because I did an energy audit and identified where we could cut back.

I may get my next vehicle via novated lease. Paying for petrol pre-tax is definitely the way to go.

It's no hardship going green. It's actually quite stimulating, and it saves me money.

pjb05 wrote on Jun 10^th, 2008 at 6:55pm:


You see, that's a good example of what so-called experts say about it. Again they're comparing the Prius with a smaller, less powerful car.  There is no way I'd drive a Hyundai i30. I need the extra room and comfort that the Prius provides. Apart from that, the inflated price of diesel doesn't make it a good option right now. I don't know why they do that. It's like comparing a Camry to a Yaris. A Yaris has an economy of about 5.6L/100k, but a Camry is up around 8.1L/100k. It stands to reason - the Camry is a midsize car.  So is a Toyota Prius.

Let's compare apples with apples.  

Most Australian drivers are city drivers, but the Prius is still competitive for this australian driver (I drive about 60,000 km a year), and they represent the way we need to go. I find that the economy is much better in large cities on freeway driving, but still pretty good for hilly country drives. It's not just from braking that the battery gets charged. Going down hills does the same. I got 4.6L/100km driving from Brisbane to Gladstone last month, so country driving doesn't mean a dramatic reduction in economy. That's my experience anyway. The worst economy with the Prius is driving is small cities like Gladstone, Rockhampton and Emerald. Short journeys with any vehicle is bad news.

What I mean when I say that they represent the way we need to go is that we're not aiming for a slight reduction - we should be looking at virtually eliminating fossil fuel all together (apart from petrochemicals, plastics etc).  Hybrid technology ultimately offers that possibility.

I guess biodiesel offers the same, but there are too many problems worldwide with biodiesel forcing food prices up.

It's not a clear cut issue by any means. There are many aspects to it. I have weighed up those aspects and made the decision that's right for me. When I come to change vehicles in 2009, the conditions may have changed.

http://news.smh.com.au/national/hybrid-cars-can-make-a-statement-20080612-2ph9.html

Hybrid cars make sense: they use less petrol and produce less emissions, saving precious fossil fuels and reducing their impact on the environment.

But if Australians plan to buy them to save money, they could be disappointed.

The models currently on sale on the local market, and those set to be sold here in the next few years, all sell at a premium price.

And, even with petrol prices skyrocketing, when compared with small, conventionally powered vehicles, they still lag behind in total running costs.

The cheapest hybrid available in Australia sells for more than $35,000.

Compare that with a smaller, four-cylinder car, which retails for well under $20,000, the savings in petrol costs need to be significant for the sums to add up.

At present they're not, with a hybrid likely to return a fuel economy figure of between four and five litres per 100 kilometres compared with about six or seven litres for its smaller rival.

At current petrol prices that would mean a saving in petrol costs of about $6,500 over the 200,000km life of an average car.

Even comparing a hybrid to a similarly-sized car, the time taken to recoup the extra purchase price remains about 10 years, according to Royal Automobile Association (RAA) technical services manager Mark Borlace.

---

Aussie plug-in hybrid car unveiled

http://news.smh.com.au/national/aussie-plugin-hybrid-car-unveiled-20080612-2pg7.html

A car of the future, which can be charged from a household power point, has been unveiled in Melbourne.

The vehicle was converted into a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) by an Australian university team.

The green car, which can be charged directly from the domestic power grid, was shown off by green company Szencorp and Sydney's University of Technology (UTS).

The PHEV uses a converted Toyota Prius, fitted with extra batteries for greater storage and a power socket so it can be charged directly from the grid.

Chris Dunstan, UTS project director, said the PHEV could offer not only much lower fuel bills but also the flexibility of storing wind power and solar energy at times.

"Plug-in hybrid cars have the potential to revolutionise not only how we drive but how we generate and use electricity in our homes and workplaces," Mr Dunstan said.

"This car heralds a not-too-distant future where householders will charge up their cars from solar panels on their roof and then pump surplus power from their car back into the grid on days of high peak power demand.

"If charged up on renewable energy, the PHEV can dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as it can run on electricity for over 30 kilometres, the average daily commute of many Australian motorists.

---

Toyota says to produce new hybrid battery next year

http://news.smh.com.au/technology/toyota-says-to-produce-new-hybrid-battery-next-year-20080612-2p7f.html

Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday that it plans to start producing lithium-ion batteries next year as it races against rivals to develop new high-mileage hybrid vehicles.

Toyota, seeking to keep its lead in the growing hybrid market amid rising petrol prices, said its joint venture with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. will move into full-scale production of lithium-ion batteries in 2010.

The Japanese giant was a pioneer of hybrids, which are equipped with an electric motor and a standard petrol engine to make them more economical.

The firm is poised to overtake General Motors this year as the world's top automaker but faces renewed competition from other Japanese firms, such as Honda, and overseas rivals in the green automobile race.

Toyota said it would also step up efforts to development a next-generation battery that can outperform lithium-ion batteries.

---

Engineers search for fuel-saving big rigs

http://news.smh.com.au/technology/engineers-search-for-fuelsaving-big-rigs-20080612-2p7d.html

Tractor trailers lose valuable miles per gallon to the drag that air exerts, but air may also help tame the fuel guzzling forces.

Scientists at Georgia Tech's Research Institute are creating a "circulation control system" that blows a steady current of air around the back of the truck to help boost fuel efficiency.

Trailers are an aerodynamic nightmare, essentially boxes on wheels that can't be rounded off because that would cost valuable cargo space. As they plow down the road, getting 7 miles per gallon when they're lucky, wind funneling over the box creates a suction effect that drags down the vehicle.

Robert Englar, a Georgia Tech researcher, called the vortex an "aerodynamic anchor."

Englar, who helped develop air stabilizers working for Lockheed Martin, decided to apply some of the same principles to big rigs. He connects curved bumpers at a truck's back end to a blower that pushes a steady stream of air through them and out the sides. That air flow reduces drag by replacing it with a positive pressure that helps propel the vehicle.

On a test track, Englar's system reduced drag by 32 percent and increased fuel efficiency by 12 percent. That means a truck that once would get 5 miles per gallon gets 5.6 miles per gallon. That marginal increase could save thousands of dollars a year in fuel for a single truck.

You mean this article?

Even comparing a hybrid to a similarly-sized car, the time taken to recoup the extra purchase price remains about 10 years, according to Royal Automobile Association (RAA) technical services manager Mark Borlace.

Quote:


By 2020 no doubt they will have developed more cost effective  batteries and many of these cars will be sold on the market second hand for hopefully a reasonable price.

I doubt they will have any trouble selling these cars - there are many people who want to contribute to reducing their petrol consumption and $35,000 is not that steep for companies who may lease them.

mantra wrote on Jun 13^th, 2008 at 7:27am:


Actually I know somebody with a 1998 Prius with the original batteries, which are still working perfectly.  They last much longer that usual because the charging is carefully controlled using the onboard computer.

Lithium Ion batteries will offer higher storage capacity, and possibly extended life. (I don't know about the extended life)

There is a considerable waiting time for Prius. I think it's now about 6 months, so second hand vehicles are at a premium.  

The payback time depends on a lot of things. Obviously if the resale value is high, then this reduces the overall investment.  A Prius holds its value better than just about any other vehicle. That's one factor that the so-called experts fail to take into account.  The cost after trade-in for a new Prius is considerably less if you're trading in a Prius.

The same goes for mileage. I have driven 125000 km in a little less than 3 years.

Then there is the fact that I got it on novated lease, the residue value is around $17,000 for a three year old vehicle, but it's worth $27,000. If I sold it, I'd stand to gain $10,000. However, when the lease runs out in August, I'll hang on to it until the PHEV model comes out, possible at the end of next year.

The strange thing about owning a Prius on novated lease is that they have overbudgeted for everything. The lease maintenance balance keeps mounting up (in my credit), in contrast with other leased vehicles.

Acid Monkey wrote on Jun 23^rd, 2008 at 11:46pm:


I doubt if you'd notice it. Besides, the cost per unit for discounted (off-peak) electricity here is only 9c /kWh. That's equivalent to 75c per litre of petrol.

They are designing a new PHEV in Ireland. You just drive it home and plug it into the solar panels until you're ready to drive to work the next morning.