If you can’t wait for the commercial arrival of Trey, the renewal energy vehicle, then roadsters in places like the UK and Australia may wish to consider the Hyundai i30, which picked up both the 2007 Car of the Year and 2007 Green Car of the Year in Australia.
Although claimed to have a fuel consumption of 4.7 litres per 100km, the i30 1.6-litre turbo-diesel managed to complete the 2007 World Solar Challenge conventional vehicle class on a smell-of-an-oily-rag 3.2litres/100km (73.5 mpg!), while producing 97g/km of emissions. For comparison a Prius petrol hybrid averaged 5.6litres/100km with emissions of 146g/km.
So for Australians this means traveling from Melbourne to Brisbane on less than a tank of petrol, (Britons could do London-Paris return!) and with the cost of fuel on the rise this fuel economy should appeal to many.
Although claimed to have a fuel consumption of 4.7 litres per 100km, the i30 1.6-litre turbo-diesel managed to complete the 2007 World Solar Challenge conventional vehicle class on a smell-of-an-oily-rag 3.2litres/100km (73.5 mpg!), while producing 97g/km of emissions. For comparison a Prius petrol hybrid averaged 5.6litres/100km with emissions of 146g/km.
So for Australians this means traveling from Melbourne to Brisbane on less than a tank of petrol, (Britons could do London-Paris return!) and with the cost of fuel on the rise this fuel economy should appeal to many.
The Hyundai i30 won the 2007 Green Car of the Year not only because of its spectacular fuel efficiency but because it matched this with pretty efficient pricing too. In Australia the i30 CRDi costs $21,490, while the Prius goes for about $37,400. (In the UK it looks like £12,995 on-road for the Hyundai i30 1.6 CRDi Manual.)
Apparently the judges arguments against hybrids like the Prius and Honda Accord were “the initial cost premium, the lesser benefits in long, open-road runs and the issue of battery life and disposal.” In the final analysis the Hyundai i30 won on real-world benefits. “The car is big enough and practical enough for a family, it provides the strength of diesel performance and strong torque that keeps gear changes and accelerator mashing to a minimum, and it offers its responsible carbon footprint on every drive.”
[73 miles to the gallon and it is not a hybrid! I don’t understand why we can’t get cars like this in the United States… besides the obvious answer of the oil and American automotive lobbies!]
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