Petrol is liquid energy. As a fuel, it’s so damn good that few people even stop to consider you’re taking on board an astonishing two billion Joules of energy. Unfortunately, it's running out. Here are the alternatives.
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As if the cost of living needed to be under any more pressure: The price of petrol is out of control – again.
Basic unleaded petrol looks like smashing through $1.50 a litre before the weekend – and you’ve got to wonder where all that money goes. Not to you and me, that’s for sure.
If you took a litre of petrol – let’s call it $1.50 – what’s the breakdown? Who pockets the lion’s share? Who’s getting rich? Because someone is.
Here’s how it works out.
French cities seem on the verge of banning SUVs to improve pollution. But is banning 4WDs really such a hot strategy to reduce CO2 in the world’s big cities? Where do passenger vehicles really fit in when it comes to greenhouse?
The big French cities say they’re in the process of banning gas-guzzling vehicles – including 4WDs – in an attempt to curb emissions.
The exact scheme to be put in place – exactly which vehicles, in exactly which neighbourhoods, and exactly what penalties could be enacted – are at this stage still unstated. But the intent to proceed with the project has been
GM Holden’s release of the so-called ‘flex-fuel’ Commodore a couple of months back might be one of the crucial first steps in positive change for the future of automotive fuel in Australia. The flex-fuel Commodore can run on petrol – but it can also happily consume petrol-ethanol blends up to E85 (that’s 85 per cent ethanol in 15 per cent petrol). E85 is a big step up from E10, which is quickly becoming the default automotive fuel. And that means we’re looking down the barrel of becoming an increasingly ethanol-fuelled nation.
There’s been a lot of controversy about ethanol but the fact is ethanol blends in petrol are here to stay. Here in Australia, regular unleaded petrol is being phased out, to be replaced by E10 – a blend of 10 per cent ethanol in petrol.
Most cars can