Green Blog - Green Energy , Cars and Environmental Technology Blog

I have created a beta version of my Petrol vs Diesel Cost Calculator. Its designed for you to work out if its worth swapping to a diesel car depending on the kilometres you travel each year and the relative cost of diesel vs petrol per litre. It will actually work for any fuel as a direct comparison. So you could calculate LPG versus Diesel.

Enter the figures that are in RED and it will tell you how much you will save over the kilometres that you put it. So replace the L/100km with the known figures of your car or the listed l/km of the new car, replace the cost per Litres of the fuel with today’s prices and put in how many kilometres per year that you will use. It will tell you how much you will save over the distance. You can then work out if its worth trading / selling your current car for a diesel one. You could also put in LPG or CNG figures where diesel is. Its the same calculation.

This is a beta table so carefully check the results as I’m not 100% sure I have got it correctly.

If you wish you can also put in your usable fuel tank size to get the range in KM on that tank and the cost of filling up. My car has a 60 Litres tank but I can only use 55L for obvious reasons.

You can then work out what you are going to loose when you sell/trade your car. So if I loose say $4000 going from my current car to a diesel and I’m only saving $500 a year then it will take 8 years to break even. Of course based on the above if I do a lot more kilometres per year I will save more per year.

Of course this does not allow for the lower CO2 emissions of the diesel which is a positive, but also it does not allow of the emissions created and energy used when making your new diesel car. So its up to you to work out what’s best for your personal needs and your personal beliefs in terms of the environment.

Interesting article at drive.com.au

Comparing the costs of ownership of hybrid cars to normal cars. Drive are quoting a RACV study into the issue:

” Fuel for thought for potential hybrid car buyers is the revelation that the Toyota Prius, which uses an electric motor to help the petrol engine, costs about $50 a week more to run than its closest petrol equivalent, a Toyota Corolla small hatch, and up to $5 a week more than a mid-sized four-cylinder Camry.”

The Honda Civic hybrid costs about $23 a week more to run than its four-cylinder petrol equivalent, the survey shows”

This has a lot to do with the $10 000 premium you are paying for the hybrid power plant over the petrol equivalent. I’ve always thought that with this “early adopter” premium on hybrids that they are not a good way to save money. But that not why most people buy them, they are trying to contribute to the global warming and carbon emmissions solution. Its more of a token gesture than a practical money saving measure. That why you see so many hollywood celebrities buying the Toyota Prius. They be doing a lot less damage in a turbo Diesel golf!

Im not against Hybrids, i just think they are a stop gap, temporary, technology platform for the automakers to be test new batterys and technology and to provide a token gesture to governments about reducing emmision. It buys them time to get to the real hybrids, plug-in electric models with extended range engines.

I dont personally believe that hybrids will be efficient until the petrol motor is removed from the actual drive train. In other words when hybrids operate like a diesel electric train where you have modest sized motor running at a constant RPM only when needed to top up the batteries. the motor isnt connected to the wheels at all like it is in the Prius. The motor drives an electric alternator that charges the batteries. Then the petrol/diesel motor can be made cheaply and can be run very efficiently as the motor is only designed to run at a single  RPm setting. Then you dont neccessarily need multivalve and VVTI VTEC engine technology and so on. This will make the motors cheaper,lighter and more fuel efficient.

Then wtih mass production more people will afford hybrids, that only run on petrol/diesel on long trips. Not just the rich.Otherwise they are on electric only with the option to be topped up at home on the grid using off peak power or preferrable green power from solar/hydro etc

A good example of a car like this is the Chevy Volt from GM. see more on its Wiki

I believe this to be the future of hybrids. Then eventually they will be cheaper to run and to buy. But for now they are a toy for people making a lifestyle statement, not a way of solving the oil crisis and enviroment.

I’ve got a lot more to post about this issue …