Photo credit: lammersch

The car industry is currently undergoing a green revolution, with a number of exciting new technologies vying to challenge the predominance of petrol and diesel and put an end to the internal combustion engine’s negative effects on the environment.

For many years now, private cars have been a favourite target of environmental campaigners, mainly due to the harmful emissions that all internal-combustion engines release into the atmosphere. Their effect was illustrated starkly several times in the 1970s when ‘car-mad’ cities like Los Angeles and London were frequently shrouded in a thick, polluting smog. Car manufacturers have been working on improving their products’ environmental credentials for quite some time now. The most significant developments of the last quarter of a century include the rollout of unleaded fuel, as well as the mandatory fitment of catalytic converters, which remove many of the most harmful elements of vehicle exhaust fumes, to all new cars. But as the 21st century dawned, talk of diminishing oil supplies and the ongoing threat of global warming has incentivised both carmakers and governments to accelerate development of the technologies that will one day take over completely from those in the cars for sale today, which remain dependent on fossil fuels.

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Photo credit: Hamed Saber

Even if you drive a petrol-engined car rather than a hybrid vehicle, you can still do your bit for the environment by using less fuel, a practice that will save you cash at the same time. You just need to pay more attention to the details…

Have a look at your tyres…
Did you know that a single tyre that is under-inflated by two pounds of pressure can increase your car’s fuel consumption by 1 percent? And you have four of them, so the tyres alone can increase your spending on fuel by 4 percent. So be sure to check your tyres’ air pressure at regular intervals – most garages have an air pressure gauge and pump you can use for free.

Make your car lose some weight…
This doesn’t mean you have to rid your car of panels, seats and your spare tyre, but you’re bound to be carrying around some unnecessary weight in your vehicle – we all do it. Take a quick look in your boot and remove anything that isn’t strictly necessary – for example, if you won’t get a chance to drop off those empty bottles at the recycling centre until the weekend, store them in your garage until then. And what about that roof box or bicycle rack which you haven’t used in a while? All these objects add more weight to your car and make it burn more fuel. For every 5kg of weight you get rid of, you can reduce the engine’s fuel consumption by an average of 0.1 percent, so give your car a spring clean-out today…

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The popular Prius hybrid car from Toyota Motor Corp. will be equipped with solar panels when the vehicle goes through a complete makeover as early as next spring.

The solar panels will be located on the roof and supply power to the five kilowatts needed to power the air-conditioning unit in the car. Toyota also intends to reduce the weight and thus improve the fuel efficiency even more.

This move will make Toyota the first major automaker to install solar panels in one of its car models. And the western automakers hopelessly try to catch up by offering everything besides green innovation.

As a person and consumer you have the power to do something about climate change. Never forget or think otherwise. Sure you may wonder how much you’ll actually help by replacing your CFLs, recycling etc but in the end all small things path up to something bigger and more meaningful, especially when many join in.

This is part two of a series of posts explaining and giving advice on what you can do to combat climate change from your home, in the store, when you travel and on your spare time. All the things listed are easy to do, some things will take a little longer, but most of them will help save you money (besides all the positive effects on our earth).

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