“The prizes of reduced congestion at peak times, better traffic management, improved air quality and lower emissions are worth striving for.” These are the words of Johm Lewis of the BVRLA (British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association) published in a recent article in Fleet News. Mr Lewis claims that the BVRLA would support road pricing “provided that its implementation is practical, fair in taxation terms and is not an adminsistrative burden on the industry”.

My view is that road pricing is a great idea, however a simple solution is to tax fuels according to their negative social impact. The more you drive, the more fuel you burn, the more tax you pay. The cleaner the fuel you use, the lower the tax burden. Longer journeys would result in less tax paid per mile (assuming motorway driving results in higher engine efficiency) and shorter journeys with more stop-and-starts result in more tax paid per mile - driving to the newsagents for the Sunday paper will not be a good idea.

Taxation can shape our behaviour. Let’s keep it simple. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

LPG scooters have already been introduced in the UK, now it is time for LPG motorbikes.  A French company, Espace Lisir, have just signed an agreement with the Vietnamese inventor of the LPG conversion kit for motorbikes to bring the hybrid fuel carburetor to Europe.

Europe is introducing this kit along with Australia, India, Cambodia, Thailand, Philippines and Africa.  The LPG motorbike with have a 30% reduction on environmental impact and up to 40% cost savings for the owners.  Espace Lisir aim to launch an advertising campaign in 2007 covering 17 different European countries along with exhibitions in France and Italy.

Professor Bui Van Ga is behind the research team that has launched the kit and is now working towards developing garbage vehicles with three-wheels that run on LPG.  Ga aims to have 100 of these vehicles in operation by next year.

Last week, Yahoo! launched a “Green Car” page on the auto website.  All cars listed have been given a green rating to give an indicator of how eco-friendly each car is.  The Toyota Prius Hybrid model comes out on top with the highest green rating.  Other cars listed include ethanol cars, Biodiesel, and natural gas, along with information and advice on station locations, mileage calculators and incentives for running a green car.

Sounds great, however Yahoo! UK has not followed in the States footsteps and has yet to launch a green car page. Hopefully the US page will be a success and encourage Yahoo! UK to follow suit.

Jay Leno, US TV personality, along with General Motors Advanced Design Studio have designed a Biodiesel super car.  Labelled the “Eco-jet”, this one-off creation has a horse-power of 650 and a Honeywell LT-101 turbine engine with 400 lb-ft torque.

There are many conflicting opinions about whether or not Leno’s car should be granted the “Eco” label.  Treehugger and Green Car Congress have some rather strong opinions posted on their Blogs.  Although the car is fuelled by Biodiesel, the power and cost are not exactly eco-conscious.

The counter argument for the “Eco-jet” - Jay Leno’s money financed the design and production of the car, GM only lent out their design studio and in terms of a turbine car – the “Eco-jet” is more efficient than others before.

The BBC has reported today that climate Change is affecting the global economy. This is the first report issued on Climate Change by an economist, Sir Nicholas Stern, rather than Environmental Scientists.

Global warming and climate change have recently been highlighted by Al Gore in his movie ‘An Inconvenient Truth‘. This report supports the stance that climate change will affect us in our lifetime. Our Global Economy has the potential to crash by 20% unless action is taken now, and the rich western countries, UK included, need to take positive action to prevent sea levels rising, water shortages, wildlife extinction and millions of people becoming refugees in their own homes (BBC).

This is all very worrying; so what is the Government urging us to do to prevent these catastrophic outcomes from happening. Well, by 2010 the Government would like to see 5% of all vehicles running on biofuels. Currently only 0.5% of all vehicles are running on LPG in the UK. Targets to reduce European emissions by 30% by 2020 have also been set. You can easily calculate your cars emissions and compare your reductions if running on LPG. Further actions will focus on establishing trade links with Brazil, Papua New Guinea and Costa Rica to ensure sustainable forestry and working on clean coal technologies in partnership with China.

The following chart was taken from the Stern Review highlighting the part that transport is playing towards emissions. Transport accounts for 14% of our Global emissions.

Sir Nicholas Stern, the author of the report, stated that “We have the time and knowledge to act but only if we act internationally, strongly and urgently “. But that wasn’t the only statement that made an impact. Most notably Mr Blair admitted that “This disaster is not set to happen in some science fiction future many years ahead, but in our lifetime,” and he continued to say that “For every £1 invested now we can save £5, or possibly more, by acting now.
We can’t wait the five years it took to negotiate Kyoto - we simply don’t have the time. We accept we have to go further (than Kyoto).”

Perhaps if there is a financial gain involved, people might be more inclined to take action now rather than later. There must be an immediate growth down-scaling if we’re expecting to have growth in the future. We can no longer wait and see, we must act here and now.
Read a summary of the 700-page report here or contact Fuelture for more information on how to cut your emissions.

Last week’s hot topic on the news was the Liberal Democrats change to Richmond’s Resident Parking Policy. Fuelture is currently investigating to find out if LPG cars will benefit from this change to parking policy in Richmond.

The yearly cost of residents parking is currently £200, Richmond is now basing the parking fee on a cars emissions, with the greenest cars parking for free and high emission cars paying up to £750. Also, having more than one car per household will cost an extra 50% for the second permit. Click here to find out how much your emissions would cost you to park in Richmond.

The Lib Dem’s are approaching the Cabinet next Monday to seek approval for the scheme and believe that this will be an incentive for more people to opt for greener cars and have a positive impact on reducing the effects of climate change. Watch this space for an update on what this means for LPG cars.

The Australian Government has spent more than $2.6million encouraging Aussie’s to convert to LPG. Perhaps the most surprising thing about this figure is the fact that no advertising expenditure has gone on T.V. ads; LPG promotions have been purely print and radio driven.

Fuelture has kept an active watch on the Australian LPG market since the introduction of the $2,000 subsidy in August this year. With the demand for LPG conversions resulting in a two month waiting list, and over 10,000 enquiries into LPG conversions. Perhaps the large advertising budget can be justified by the success of the scheme.

Once again we see manufacturers like Hyundai are pushing LPG cars in other markets, while the UK seems to be missing out. Hyundai just announced that they will be partnering with the Itochu Group to push LPG cars in Japan. Together, they plan to initially target taxi and rental companies. Japan has some 300,000 LPG cars on the road supported by an infrastructure of 1,900 LPG stations, so Hyundai’s efforts seem to be targeted at more mature automotive LPG markets.

Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could rent LPG cars over here in the UK?

Seoul City, Korea is the next large city to crack down with congestion charging. Air pollution caused by car exhaust fumes is an issue for most cities in the world now and Korea have introduced an innovative driving scheme aiming to reduce the air pollution levels. Drivers will receive a 50% CC discount for taking part in the scheme known as “No Driving Day“. Motorists are expected to abandon their cars for one day each week and are rewarded with this CC discount. The scheme sounds great in theory, however as the No driving cars are only marked with a paper sticker; it is proving difficult to track whether or not motorists are sticking to the No Driving Day promise.

Alternative fuel vehicles, including Electric, hybrid, solar and fuel-cell cars are fully exempt from the CC in Korea. LPG and Diesel Oxidation Catalyst cars receive 50% discount regardless of whether they take part in the No Driving Day scheme.

More and more cities are introducing CC and other methods to encourage motorists to switch to greener driving habits. With London looking to expand the CC zone further, is it time for you to consider you motoring options?

Green car congress reported last week, since gas prices have dropped - less people are searching online for fuel-efficient cars and returned to their previous bad habits (i.e. Hummer searches have risen by nearly 15%).  It wasn’t long ago that the demand for gas-guzzling cars dropped dramatically.  Alternative fuel cars are cheaper to run, however surely the environmental impact is important to consumers too.  Gas prices have dropped, but the emissions these larger cars produce are still a lot more than cleaner fuelled cars.

The following chart was taken from Green Car Congess that shows the change in online car searches.