I think the US rely on gasoline so much and don't care much about fuel economy because they've had cheap fuel for soooo long. Same in Australia - diesels are still seen as tractors and are rarely in passenger cars.
vtecintegra,
Oct 27, 10:47pm
Diesels are almost impossible to sell in passenger cars in the USA due to their emission requirements.
Only VW is selling them there at the moment, and apparently they're relying on some kind of loophole that will go away in the future. Pretty stupid really given the number of pickup trucks and SUVs they still buy which get the best economy gains from diesel.
vtecintegra,
Oct 27, 10:52pm
I'd also like to know how they came up with the 20MPG petrol and 47MPG diesel figures. I suspect they're going off average US numbers for petrol and average European numbers for diesel (and not converting to US gallons)
timmo1,
Oct 27, 11:07pm
not to mention the fact that diesel fuel is more expensive per litre than gas over there.that shocked me. It also explained why their motorhomes etc all have large petrol engines instead of diesel.
vtecintegra,
Oct 27, 11:09pm
Their tax structure is different.
Pretty sure without any tax diesel would be a little more expensive here too.
phillip.weston,
Oct 27, 11:17pm
in Europe and most of the rest of the world diesel is more expensive than petrol. Only difference in NZ is diesel is untaxed at the pump but then taxed separately depending on the use of the vehicle (ie farm vehicles not used on the road don't have to pay roading taxes).
mapman,
Oct 28, 9:43am
I have been following the author, Bill Anderson for about 7 years now & have have brought books off him in the past. I can recommend ???Electricity ??
ladatrouble,
Oct 28, 10:26am
We didn't used to be much better ourselves - I remember there used to be a lot of petrol trucks. The 300 Bedford was the most common truck on the road,and a lot of the International ACCO and Loadstar trucks had petrol V8's in them - they wouldn't have used them if they were very much more expensive to run than diesels.
elect70,
Oct 29, 12:55am
Toyota entering a LMP1hybrid in Le mans next year ,interesting . So far mazda is the onlyjap to have won it .
rhys5,
Nov 2, 12:17pm
More petrol engines will usehigh compression motors in the future. Means They will be more efficient like diesel engines
biggerbud,
Nov 2, 12:40pm
Electric cars will not take off in NZ simply because we don't have the supply capable of charging any significant numbers. We have power shortages now so you can imagine if there were a large number of electric cars being charged up. Bit silly to even contemplate it as a mass energy source for transport.
pollymay,
Jan 23, 1:18pm
no one wants to drive a god damn smart car around in New Zealand. Kind of silly to put so many freaking pictures of that, mini is crap to. The VW is the only one I'd own but I'd prefer the lambo.
We also suck at alternative energy, that whole parade about getting carbon credits and whatnot is a load of poo politics. I know people that have run solar heated water for years with wetback backup on an efficient burner and the power companies and council have used standover tactics and threats to get rid of it cause of lost revenue. Likewise farmers generating off hydo from a waterfall or stream on their property and council doing the whole parade and courts thing till they give up and remove it. There are those that do it successfully but if the councils/power companies think they have a leg to stand on to stop you saving money (it's what it comes down to) they will shaft you for it, they aren't for the environment at all even though their feel good campains say so, I can't see cars being much different. Huge revenue on fuel, they won't give it up so it's all a game.
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