According to advocates, the system for holding dodgy car dealers accountable is broken, and an overhaul in how vehicle disputes are handled is needed. 

“Different states are trying different things, but no one has got this issue fixed,” says Erin Turner, CEO of Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC). 

“In the last few years we have seen this problem get worse here in Victoria.” 

Despite the ongoing issues facing customers who are sold a dud car, advocates say there are simple measures state and territory governments and the federal government could take to reform the complaints system. 

How big is the problem? 

A 2023 report from CPRC into lemon cars found 75% of people who purchased a used car had a problem with their vehicle. One third of the issues appeared within the first three months of ownership, well within the reasonable expectations timeframe in which the Australian Consumer Law would apply. 

“In our report, we found dealers would often not fix problems or give consumers the run-a-round. When people escalated their complaint through the proper formal channels at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), we found there were over 60 steps they had to take from raising the issue to getting a resolution, in the best case scenario,” Turner says. 

Every state has a similar tribunal system to VCAT for handling car complaints, with the exception of Western Australia where matters are progressed through the Magistrates Court.  

The VCAT website lists the current wait time from the date of filing an issue to mediation or hearing date as 52 weeks. 

Paw’s story 

For refugee Paw*, hailing from the Karen minority group of Myanmar, buying a second hand car from a dealer in the western suburbs of Melbourne quickly turned into a nightmare. Her car’s engine light came on within ten minutes of driving off the lot and after several weeks of the dealer “repairing” the vehicle, her second attempt to drive it to her home in regional Victoria ended with the car breaking down on the side of a highway. 

“I thought because I bought the car from a proper shop it would be done properly, there would be no issue,” she tells ����Vlog, speaking with a translator. 

The language barriers for Paw, who doesn’t speak English, meant that navigating the complex VCAT system was even more difficult. The single mother lost her job at a vegetable packing facility because she was unable to drive to work and had to borrow money from other members of the community to purchase another vehicle while waiting for the tribunal. 

In the end it took her three years to get a resolution and for her to get her almost $9000 back. 

Her settlement worker Mu Ye Ploe says many people facing the barriers Paw faced would have given up, something dodgy dealerships are banking on. 

“Definitely the car dealers are taking advantage of people’s language barriers. She told them she would take them to the tribunal and they didn’t believe her, probably they thought because she doesn’t speak English she can’t stand up for her rights,” he says. 

All too common issues

For Consumer Action Law Centre lawyer Brigette Rose, who helped on Paw’s case, the issues of long delays and repeat offending dealerships are all too familiar. 

“All the onus is on the consumer, to wait these long delays, to pay for and come up with specialist mechanics reports which often cost thousands of dollars, simply to get a car fixed that never worked in the first place,” she says. 

Rose says states like Victoria should consider introducing a Motor Vehicle Ombudsman to regulate the industry and respond to complaints with a mandate to tackle systemic issues. 

“We see it work with a lot of other sectors,” she says. Rose adds that any such body would also take a lot of pressure off the tribunal system, which clearly can’t keep up with complaints in a timely manner. 

Carrots and sticks 

As well as reform at the state level, both Rose and Turner from CPRC agree there needs to be reform to introduce civil penalties for consumer guarantee breaches under Australian Consumer Law. In cases like Paw’s, while the dealer was forced to refund the purchase price of the car, there was no penalty. 

“We need the right mix of carrots and sticks,” says Turner. “Currently there are no penalties for car dealers who abuse the system, so there is no incentive for them to actually resolve the complaints before they get to a tribunal stage.” 

“We need better systems, better data, better penalties.” 

She adds that while consumers need more data on dodgy dealerships, or those with a history of not resolving complaints so they can know to steer clear, there should also be a way for consumers to recognise and reward dealerships who do the right thing. 

“Why don’t we have some kind of ratings system? So people could know the dealer they are buying from has a history as a trusted dealership or at least one that resolves issues when they arise.” Turner says. 

*Not her real name 

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Thousands of low-income Victorian residents could soon be receiving an unexpected knock on the door from a state sheriff, or at least a bombshell of a debt collection notice in the mail. 

They’re unlikely to know what’s coming. Despite an outcry from legal aid and community support groups, the state government has said it’s going to start trying to collect unpaid road toll fines dating back a decade or more. And it’s threatening to put people in prison if they don’t pay.

Most of these approximately 3117 unexecuted imprisonment warrants were written up against economically marginalised Victorians. The bulk of them are for unpaid fines to road toll operator Transurban, a global corporation that has a lucrative monopoly on Australia’s busiest commuting routes. (The Magistrates’ Court in Victoria can issue enforcement warrants for a sheriff to execute after a “notice of final demand” for outstanding fines goes unpaid.)

The unpaid financial penalties for a single warrant – mouldering for years in the state’s record books – could easily be in the tens of thousands of dollars, as steep administrative and late payments fees have added to the original toll amounts.

At the moment, there’s a moratorium on executing the warrants that came into effect in early 2024 after Victoria Legal Aid and other community support groups caught wind of what the government had in mind.

But moratoriums are temporary, and the lawyers and social support professionals ����Vlog spoke to say the pause needs to become an outright ban on trying to collect this phantom revenue.

Many of the affected people would be unaware that they have outstanding toll debts, which generally balloon out of proportion with the accretion of late payment and administration fees. The knock on the door would come out of the blue.

Criminal charges for private debts

Shifrah Blustein, a managing lawyer at Inner Melbourne Community Legal, says “it’s unusual and egregious that people are at serious risk of going to prison for not paying a toll fine, which arises from a debt to a private company”. It makes Victoria an outlier.

“No other debts to private companies, like not paying your phone or utility bill, can result in criminal charges, let alone imprisonment,” Blustein says.

Bronwyn Davis, a specialist family violence financial counsellor at Women’s Legal Service Victoria, points out that this would effectively be the state doing toll operator Transurban’s bidding, since it’s the toll operator who chooses which toll debts to refer to Victoria Police.

“Transurban can send toll fee notices to Victoria Police to pursue the criminal route and the rest sit with Transurban, which they try to collect without involving the police,” Davis says. “So affected people are getting pursued by both sides and then facing the threat of imprisonment.”

Davis wants policymakers to understand that the people they’re bent on extracting money from are already struggling to survive. And there’s often a darker story in the background.

“These are people who can’t afford to pay, and on top of that many have been experiencing family violence. And because of the nature of family violence, many actually don’t realise the extent of their fines and the risk that they’re facing.”

Fines a significant part of financial counselling cases

The “zombie warrants” issue comes at a time when more and more people in Victoria are finding it hard to pay for basic necessities. According to a December 2025 update of the Mapping Poverty in Victoria project by the Victorian Council of Social Service, over 800,000 Victorians, including 216,000 children, live on the edge of poverty. This is around 13% of the state’s population.

Blustein says this includes a growing number of families with two working parents whose combined income just isn’t enough. They may have once been considered “middle class”, but the cost-of-living pressures in major population centres like Melbourne have blurred socioeconomic lines.

Blustein and Davis are co-convenors of an organisation focused on reducing the impact of Victoria’s convoluted fines system on people with very little discretionary income.

The Infringements Working Group (IWG) is made up of the Federation of Community Legal Centres (Victoria), Victoria Legal Aid and Financial Counselling Victoria.

In a December 2025 submission to the state government, the IWG called for reform “that moves away from a punishment and deterrence model and recognises that many fine recipients do not have the capacity or means to resolve their fines in a complex and traumatising fines system, particularly in a cost-of-living crisis”.

Unpaid fines come into play in around 12% of financial counselling cases in Victoria.

Are the fines actually enforceable?

Many of the unpaid road toll fines were issued before Victoria’s Fines Reform Act of 2017, which came about after the state parliament acknowledged that the previous legislation allowing imprisonment for unpaid fines disproportionately affected vulnerable Victorians.

“People are being punished under a regime that doesn’t exist anymore, but the warrants made back then still do,” Blustein says. 

The punishment would also be for an infraction that was probably unintentional. For many Victorians, using a toll road is more of an unavoidable necessity than a conscious choice, she says.

“We hear lots of stories of parents driving kids with disabilities to appointments, or who are in a mental health crisis or fleeing family violence, all sorts of things interacting. So if they receive a toll notice, it’s not the top priority at the time. They’re juggling all sorts of other financial obligations.”

And then life goes on.

“One of the worst things about this system is that it doesn’t catch up with you for a long time, but when it does, it’s harsh. So people think, ‘okay, I can put that on the back burner and deal with my more urgent issues’.”

For Blustein and Davis, it’s a case of criminalising poverty, because many people simply can’t afford the high cost of road tolls. To take one example, residents in Melbourne’s more socio-economically disadvantaged outer suburbs rely heavily on the Transurban network because public transport isn’t really an option. They stand to pay the most in both tolls and late payment fees. Unless they can’t pay or forget they were supposed to.

“We suspect that a lot of affected people wouldn’t even know about the existence of these warrants. They’re from a decade or more ago,” says Blustein.

“They wouldn’t know that they’ve defaulted on a payment arrangement and now there’s an imprisonment warrant hanging over their head that the sheriff can execute at any time.”

In December last year, Victoria’s Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny told The Age that warrants and imprisonment were “last resorts for outstanding fines and have nothing to do with the state’s financial position”.

But the heavy-handed last resort remains a distinct possibility. Bronwyn Davis says it’s time to put the unexecuted warrants and their legal ambiguity to bed forever.

“If the Victorian Government doesn’t actively close this loophole, imprisonment won’t be off the table for people who incur fines in the future.”

And that would include not just low-income Victorians, but everyone in the state who’s finding it hard to get by.

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If you’ve spent any time driving on the roads over the past few months, you’ve probably noticed a few things. Firstly, the sharp increase in fuel prices, and secondly, the amount of electric vehicles (EVs) on the road. It’s not hard to see the connection between the two. But in Australia, the EV market has been growing for years now.

According to recent data from both the , EVs (both battery-electric and plug-in hybrid combined) accounted for 11.8% of all new car sales in Australia in February 2026, and those numbers are expected to grow substantially.

But regardless of this growth, Australia is still lagging behind Europe. In the UK, EV sales represented over 23% of new car sales in 2025. In Norway that number is a mind-boggling 95.9%. So, is it time to make the switch? And is now a good time to buy an EV?

Why are EVs not as popular in Australia?

According to a report published by the , cost was the biggest barrier to entry for Australians when it comes to purchasing EVs. Despite the fact that most of us understand that EVs have lower running costs than traditional petrol vehicles, for many consumers the initial outlay is still too much. 

But the second biggest concern for consumers is a lack of charging infrastructure – it’s no good having an electric car if you can’t take it on a road trip.

Australia is a big country, with a relatively small population density, so it makes sense we have fewer charging stations compared to folks in Europe and the US. Despite a huge surge in charging stations being installed over the past few years, . 

Regardless of these issues, more and more Australians are interested in buying EVs.

Are there enough charging stations here in Australia?

While we don’t have the infrastructure of some other jurisdictions, the situation is improving. 

in terms of sheer volume of chargers. But across Australia as a whole, the infrastructure is growing faster than the EV market itself, and it shows no signs of slowing. 

“There still aren’t enough  EV chargers in most areas, but that’s changing,” says ����Vlog EV expert Chris Barnes.

“As people see the chargers around and EV charging becomes an everyday sight, they’ll get more comfortable with the idea of owning an EV.

“Also, technology is developing so fast. In a few years’ time I expect there’ll be EVs that can charge in a few minutes, nearly as fast as a petrol top-up. And battery prices and capacity keep improving.”

Why are EVs so expensive in Australia?

In Australia, cars in general tend to be more expensive, especially compared to other bigger markets like the US and Europe, and they also .

Factors like inflation, the relative value of the Aussie dollar and the cost of shipping to a relatively remote country with a small population all undoubtedly play a part in the cost of cars here in Australia.

Compounding these issues is a supply and demand problem. While the number of electric vehicles sold in Australia has increased in the past year, we’re still a long way behind many European countries, where EVs substantially outsell the alternatives.

Our small population and lower demand means that cars can’t be shipped and sold at scale, which contributes to the increased price. 

That being said, prices are coming down. And the EVs being sold in Australia are cheaper than you might think.

“I think EVs are actually not always that much more expensive in Australia than in most other Western countries,” says Chris. “Probably they are a bit cheaper in some other countries like the USA. Certainly they are generally much cheaper in China, as you’d expect.

“But some EVs are now actually cheaper here than in the UK. As an example, the base model MG4 EV in the UK costs £22,000 (about $42,100). Here, it costs about $32,000.”

What about EV running costs?

There’s definitely good news here. You absolutely will save money on running costs if you purchase an EV over a petrol car. You just need to check whether those savings are significant enough to justify the higher initial outlay.

According to , you can save up to 70% on fuel costs and 40% on maintenance costs. That amounts to a saving of $1000 on fuel costs per year for an average car driving 13,700 kilometres per year.

This, of course, all depends on where and when you charge your EV, if you use solar charging, and whether or not you take advantage of off-peak energy tariffs. 

Regardless, you will save money on running costs if you use an EV.

Are there incentives for buying EVs in Australia?

If you’re buying an EV as part of a fleet of company cars, or under salary sacrifice arrangements, you could be eligible for a that could potentially save you thousands of dollars. Eligibility is dependent on a number of factors, however, and only applies to a select group of EV models.  

There are additional benefits you may be able to access depending on which state you live in.. These incentives change frequently and there are a number of restrictions, so triple check what you’re eligible for before buying.

What about EV resale value?

Despite the fact that EVs have fewer moving parts and are easier to service over long periods of time, data shows that compared to equivalent petrol vehicles.

That’s partly due to the fact they’re more expensive to begin with, but also due to (often inaccurate) perceptions about EVs among folks perusing the second-hand market.

For example, some people might believe the battery will need replacing in a few years, but the truth is most modern EV batteries last very well.

But, on the flip side, this means it could be worth picking up a relatively cheap secondhand EV on the used car market.

Is now a good time to buy an EV?

With and a host of new models to choose from, 2026 could potentially be a pretty good year to jump on board the EV bandwagon, according to Chris.

“If you are thinking of buying a new car and considering an EV, I’d say there’ll be a lot of good options this year,” he says.

“We’ve got multiple Chinese brands launching soon, or already here. They see Australia as a fertile market, with no import tariffs to worry about, and they know there is a lot of interest here in cars that are well-priced.” 

But there are a few caveats. 

“Personally, my only real concern with these brands is not the quality of the cars, but the quality of the local service and dealerships. Many of those brands don’t have a presence here, so they are partnering with established car dealer networks, who might not know the cars that well, and who might not offer the best service.”

What about ethical concerns?

One of the key reasons people invest in EVs over petrol-fuelled cars is concern for the environment. Despite the fact that Australia is still mainly powered by fossil fuels (in 2024 it was reported that ), it’s still better to use grid-powered electricity to run an EV than driving a petrol car.

Even coal-fired power plants are , and EVs are more efficient than petrol cars. All these energy savings add up.

But there’s also the issue of the materials required to build EVs. A recent ����Vlog investigation looked into human rights concerns at nickel smelters in Indonesia where Tesla, Ford and Volkswagen source minerals to help build their EVs. It makes for grim reading. 

It shouldn’t necessarily dissuade you from buying an EV over a petrol car, but it’s an issue worth being aware of.

Which EV should you buy?

That’s a trickier question to answer and it depends on a number of factors, not least of which is how much you’re willing to spend, and what kind of range you’ll require for everyday use. 

We’ve reviewed a whole host of EVs currently available in Australia. You can head there for more info.

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Even before Australia’s latest petrol price panic, the cost of filling up our cars was driving a lot of financial stress.

In a Consumer Pulse survey of households we conducted last June, 76% said they were concerned about the cost of fuel.

Now, prices have jumped above normal levels as turmoil in the Middle East threatens supply and Aussie motorists rush to fill up.

Motoring groups have accused some fuel retailers of profiteering, saying their prices are much higher than they should be and have urged consumers to shop around, noting some outlets are still keeping prices competitive.

But filling up at a fair price is only part of the equation – you can put off your next servo stop a bit longer and save even more money by considering how you drive and caring for your car.

Here are five of our tips to save on fuel.

• 1. Think about how you drive
• 2. Care for your car
• 3. Compare prices via apps and websites
• 4. Get to know your city’s petrol price cycle
• 5. Consider a more efficient vehicle

1. Think about how you drive

Are you guilty of being a little heavy-footed on the accelerator? Easing back on the pedal is just one of a range of practices you can adopt to save on fuel.

“Changing your driving style is one of the most effective ways to improve your car’s fuel economy,” says Alex Forrest, vehicles and fuels manager at Western Australia’s Royal Automobile Club.

“Think of the accelerator as a tap – the more you press it down, the more fuel you’ll send to the engine to be burnt,” he adds.

“Relax a bit as you drive,” advises Dr Ian Jeffreys, principal economic and affordability specialist at the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland (RACQ). 

“Smooth out the drive [and] drive steadily, avoiding any harsh acceleration or hard braking.”

It also pays to avoid driving at times when traffic is congested: cars tend to use more fuel when moving in a stop-start fashion, such as in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Once you’ve reached your destination, it’s a good idea to shut the engine off, even if you’re only stopping for a short time.

“Modern cars don’t need to be ‘warmed up’, it just wastes fuel,” says James Williams, head of policy at the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV).

“By having the engine switched off, even for a short period, you will save more fuel than is lost in restarting the engine and the increased wear and tear from this is negligible.”

There’s also a careful (but beneficial) balance you can strike between running the air conditioning and rolling down windows that could leave more in your wallet.

Running a car’s air con causes it to work harder and use more fuel, so if you want to cool off, it’s usually better to crack a window instead.

But when a car is travelling at 80km/h or more, the aerodynamic drag caused by an open window will cause more stress on the engine than running the air conditioning, leading to less juice in the tank.

Do manual cars use less fuel?

When we asked ����Vlog members for tips to save on fuel, some recommended driving a manual, suggesting automatic cars were less economical.

“This is true of older vehicles, such as those from the 1980s, ’90s and early 2000s, which had less advanced automatic transmissions that sapped more of the engine’s power,” says Alex Forrest.

“The availability [now] of more modern auto transmission designs, such as dual clutch and continuously variable transmissions, have helped automatic vehicles become much more efficient.”

Ian Jeffreys agrees manual cars don’t automatically take the title of the most economical vehicles, but argues it can be easier to drive more efficiently with your hand on the gear stick.

“In a manual car, it’s very clear which gear you’re in and you are in control,” he says. “You want to be getting into as high a gear as possible [to save fuel].”

2. Care for your car

On top of general maintenance, there are several specific tips that can pay dividends at the bowser.

One is to unload unnecessary items from your car. The NRMA found loading a vehicle to its maximum-rated weight will lead to it using 24% more fuel.

“If you’re a golfer or scuba diver, get your gear out of the boot, put it in the garage,” advises Peter Khoury, a spokesperson for the NSW-based motorist group.

The NRMA also found keeping your car’s tyres inflated at the right pressure will reduce rolling resistance and fuel consumption by around two percent.

You can usually find the recommended pressure for your tyres written on the driver’s door jamb or in your owner’s manual.

Ian Jeffreys says removing any car add-ons when you don’t need them will also reduce resistance.

“If you don’t need the roof racks, take them off,” he advises. “[These sorts] of things will increase drag and increase your fuel use.”

3. Compare prices via apps and websites

Browsing your local bowsers before filling up is a great way to avoid spending more than you have to, as prices can vary hugely even between outlets in the same town or suburb.

Using the NSW FuelCheck platform this week, ����Vlog found a difference of over 20 cents per litre in the cost of unleaded 91 petrol on the same day between two Sydney service stations, seven minutes’ drive apart.

Luckily, you too can shop around and find the cheapest deal thanks to the various apps and websites that let you compare prices at retailers near you.

What fuel comparison tools are available?

There are over 40 free fuel price apps and websites operating in Australia, with different platforms servicing different parts of the country.

So, wherever you are, there should be an app or website that will let you compare the going rates for different fuel types near you.

In most states and territories, these comparison services draw their prices from a government database that retailers are required to report to. We’ve previously found these services to be the most accurate.

Some states and territories with databases also have their own government-run apps or websites. Others have a list of third-party apps or websites that receive data from their respective fuel reporting schemes.

Some other non-government apps use crowd-sourced data, meaning you’re relying on other motorists to update the price information being displayed.

How to compare fuel prices in each state and territory

NSW: Has a government-run database and . Third-party services are also available.

ACT: Most service stations are included on NSW’s , but third-party services are also available.

Victoria: Has a government-run database and . Third-party services are also available.

Tasmania: Has a government-run database and . Third-party services are also available.

Western Australia: Has a government-run database and . Third-party services are also available.

Northern Territory: Has a government-run database and . Third-party services are also available.

South Australia: Has a government-run database and a .

Queensland: Has a government-run database. Data is provided to third-party apps and websites, including RACQ, PetrolSpy, MotorMouth and FuelRadar.

4. Get to know your city’s petrol price cycle

You should know that, outside of times of unusual price volatility, petrol prices go up and down in a relatively predictable pattern in Australia’s largest cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Similar sequences have also been observed in some neighbouring regional areas.

This is the “petrol price cycle” (diesel prices don’t move in this way) and it can make a big difference to how much you pay at the pump.

If you’re in one of the five largest capitals, you can observe your city’s cycle by checking the . 

The consumer regulator updates this resource three times a week, telling you where your city’s cycle is up to and providing buying advice.

“[The petrol price cycle] can either help you save money on fuel or leave you absolutely exposed if you fill up at the wrong point,” explains Peter Khoury from the NRMA.

If you live in a city with a petrol price cycle, you can save by filling up towards the end of the cheap (or lower) part of the cycle. Ian Jeffreys says this is the time to be comparing local prices.

“It’s in the cheap phase, moving into the price hike phase, where the best deals can be found,” he says. “You really want to be watching the cycle in your city and making sure that when you’re moving into the price hike phase, you’ve got a full tank of fuel.”

You can sign up for alerts to let you know when it’s a good time in your area to buy fuel via most price apps and websites.

Why do we have petrol price cycles?

When in operation, the petrol price cycle doesn’t mirror changes in wholesale costs, but is driven by retailer strategies in bigger cities.

Retailers seem to adopt these practices in districts where they’re competing against lots of other service stations and want to get a competitive edge.

In these areas, the price you pay at the bowser at the bottom of the cycle tends to be close to the wholesale price, and can even be below the average costs borne by the retailers to supply the petrol.

This means the price cycle can deliver good deals to consumers buying at the right time, especially compared to regional areas, where petrol prices are usually higher and more heavily influenced by international factors.

But it also means retailers’ margins get squeezed, so they’ll start to raise the price after a period of time. 

This increase happens more slowly in the areas with the most retailers, where businesses are cautious about raising prices too quickly and being undercut by the rest of the market.

Prices will rise to a certain point, until some retailers start cutting them again to gain an edge on the competition and attract more customers.

Desire to compete leads other retailers to follow suit, until the bowser prices fall back closer to the wholesale rate (back to the beginning of the cycle), where they will stay until retailers start looking for higher margins again.

While petrol price cycles in Perth and Adelaide are shorter (one and two weeks, respectively), it usually takes around five weeks for prices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to go from their low point to a high and back again.

5. Consider a more efficient vehicle

Switching to a vehicle with better fuel economy is an obvious way to spend less on refills, but going all the way to an electric or hybrid car can cut down on these costs substantially, if not completely.

The RACV recommends this not just as a solution to fuel-induced hits to your hip pocket, but also other ongoing outlays, as EVs typically have lower maintenance costs than petrol or diesel vehicles.

For info on how to choose the best electric, hybrid or just more fuel-efficient vehicle, check out our eco-friendly car buying guide. 

It talks through the available options and explains whether purchasing an EV or hybrid car will actually save you money.

If you do decide an EV is for you, compare models with our electric vehicle review and see which are the quickest to charge, have the longest range and are the cheapest to run.

Once you’re running on battery power, you can employ the same tips for saving fuel from the beginning of this article, such as careful driving and removing unnecessary items from your car, to conserve your new vehicle’s battery.

The post 5 ways to save on petrol appeared first on ����Vlog.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the federal government have responded with increased monitoring of prices, a beefing up of penalties for unlawful conduct, and promises to come down hard on any fuel companies caught taking advantage of the disruption to global oil supply chains. 

But will this work to prevent petrol retailers from trying to cash in? And how can consumers avoid the worst of the effects every time they fill up their cars? 

Price-gouging allegations 

Queensland’s peak motoring body, RACQ, has referred a number of major fuel retailers to the ACCC for allegedly taking advantage of drivers by hiking prices significantly in less than three days after the war broke out. 

“There is no good reason for fuel companies to be increasing their prices just days after conflict broke out in the region,” says Ian Jeffreys, RACQ’s principal economic and affordability specialist. 

“Yes, we’ve seen an increase in the global oil price, but that usually takes around two weeks to flow through to bowsers here in Australia, not two days,” he says.

“South East Queensland is already at the expensive phase of the price cycle. Before this additional hike, many fuel stations were already charging more than 50 cents per litre above the average wholesale price.” 

Meanwhile, NSW motoring group NRMA has called the level of price hikes “completely unjustifiable”.

“With prices in Australia’s three largest cities already at the top of the regular cycle, half of the stations in our three biggest cities are effectively inflating that margin to take advantage of the community,” says NRMA spokesperson Peter Khoury. 

“Australians are doing it tough with cost of living pressures, and now is not the time to be ripping the community off – we urge the ACCC to act.” 

What the government is doing

The federal government says it’s increasing scrutiny and surveillance of the fuel sector, shoring up fuel supply and increasing penalties for misconduct. 

“The conflict overseas shouldn’t be an excuse to profit off Australians,” says Andrew Leigh, Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury. 

“We’re putting petrol companies on notice. We won’t cop big corporates treating Australian consumers like mugs.” 

Companies will face penalties of up to $100 million per offence for misleading conduct and cartel behaviour. 

Professor David Byrne, an expert in energy and resource markets at the University of Melbourne, says research has shown that during the COVID pandemic, the government talking tough on petrol companies and putting them on notice did have a small positive price impact for consumers. 

“The ACCC has gotten very good at actively monitoring the situation. They have the resources, the data and the people in-house to monitor the wholesale price, what customers are paying and the split. In the past, we have seen fear of prosecution work to drive down prices,” he says. 

Missed opportunity

����Vlog head of policy Morgan Campbell says when sudden prices rises happen, regulators are often limited in what they can do. The federal government last year giving the regulator new powers to tackle price gouging in the supermarket sector was welcome, he says, but also a “missed opportunity” to go further. 

“When the government was looking at price gouging last year, we made two recommendations: ban it wherever it happens, not just in supermarkets, and specifically outlaw unfair price rises during shortages,” Campbell says. 

“The government missed an opportunity, but as global disruptions cause prices to skyrocket again, it’s time to revisit this and give regulators the power to tackle potential price gouging across the economy.” 

Fuel apps

Meanwhile, state governments have been talking up the importance of price comparison apps to help customers shop around and find the best deal on fuel. Melbourne University’s Byrne says the more customers use price apps, the bigger impact it has on competition in the marketplace. 

“The more, in effect, that we’re able to pit the companies against each other to bid for your business, to keep the prices low for your demand, the more we are going to be able to keep the companies in check,” he says. 

“We can’t know how long this war will go on and we can’t stop global oil prices going above $100 per gallon, so some of that we are going to have to eat at the bowser. But there are some things we can do,” he adds. 

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Whatever your reasons for being interested, we’ve collated the information available in the market to help guide you through the world of electric vehicles.

On this page:

• How we choose what we test
• Our expert testers
• How we test electric cars

How we choose what we test

If you’ve been in the market for an EV lately, you’ll have noticed ordering one or getting a test drive isn’t as simple as just going down to your local car dealer. There is a plethora of roadblocks at the moment, primarily the fact that we simply don’t have enough EVs in stock to fulfil the consumer need in Australia.

We’ve collated the most recent data from all current models and partnered with some industry experts to bring you our electric cars review with real-world figures so that you’ll know what to expect when you manage to secure a test drive.

Our expert testers

We don’t currently test cars at ����Vlog. It’s our policy to buy the vast majority of what we test, and putting aside a few million dollars to buy all the electric cars on the market is out of our reach at the moment. However, we did partner with , an Australian-owned data aggregator of electric vehicles, to put together our review based on their feedback and EV expertise.

How we test electric cars

We looked at what factors are important to consumers right now, which includes some pretty basic elements such as real-world range, warranty, efficiency and running costs, as well as how quick EVs are to charge.

We looked at the data available from both real-world feedback and manufacturer claims to develop a weighting and give some guidance to people looking to buy an EV.

The ����Vlog Expert Rating (our overall score) is made up of:

• range, based on real-world feedback (50%)
• fast charge time, based on manufacturer claims (20%)
• running costs, based on real-world feedback on efficiency and an EV travelling 14,000km a year, being charged at 40c/kWh for recharge (20%)
• battery warranty, based on the manufacturer’s claim (10%).

The post How we review electric vehicles appeared first on ����Vlog.

After waiting in a queue for around 45 minutes, her husband texted her to tell her there was industrial action by Uber drivers and they weren’t taking pick-ups from the airport. 

“I needed to be in the city for a meeting urgently so I asked the Uber employee (who monitors the queue) where the taxi rank was and he said there was no taxi rank, which is a lie,” she says. 

She eventually found the taxi rank hundreds of metres away. It had a short queue and she was in a taxi on the way to the city in minutes. 

“When you’ve just gotten off a plane you just care about convenience and getting out of there as easy as possible, usually that’s Uber, but it’s not always the case,” Kate says. 

Uber’s priority location at Melbourne Airport is exclusive to the company and other rideshare competitors like Didi have to use another pick-up zone further away. The taxi zone is also less conveniently located than the Uber zone. 

Neither Uber nor Melbourne Airport would tell us how much the rideshare company pays for its prime real estate arrangement, but Melbourne Airport says they average around 5000–6000 Uber pick-ups a day, or 1.8 million a year.  

“Melbourne Airport caters for around 100,000 passengers a day, but with limited space on our arrivals curb we need to make decisions on space allocation that reflect customer preference and demand,” a Melbourne Airport spokesperson says. 

‘Uber it’ 

Like Google or Band-aid, the word ‘Uber’ has basically become a verb in Australia, synonymous with the act of booking a rideshare from point A to B. 

And Australia is the most Uber-dense market in the world, with almost 20% of the overall population having taken a ride in a single quarter in 2023 – a greater proportion than any other country, according to the company. 

As competitors like Ola and GoCatch have folded in Australia, one analyst estimates that Uber now controls around 80% of the rideshare market, not including the taxi industry, which remains a major force.

Not always a smooth ride for Uber

Uber has also been mired in legal troubles for years.

In 2022, Uber was forced to pay $21 million in fines for misleading and deceptive conduct in a case brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC); and in 2024 a class-action by taxi drivers over Uber operating illegally when they first launched resulted in a $272 million settlement – one of the biggest class action wins in Australian history. 

Currently, Uber is facing lawsuits over alleged unlawful corporate espionage and anti-competitive behaviour against GoCatch, and a separate suit about allegations of disability discrimination against a blind customer with a guide dog. 

The company denies any wrongdoing in the GoCatch case and says individual drivers must comply with disability discrimination legislation relating to guide dogs or face being banned from the app. 

When rideshare players like Uber entered Australia in the early 2010s, ����Vlog hailed them as a win for competition and consumers looking for a ride. But has the pendulum swung too far? Is the technology giant’s market-dominant position in the best interest of customers, or is the monopoly position they hold stifling competition and increasing fares? 

Capturing the market

Uber first launched in Sydney in 2012 and since then has grown aggressively to be by far the biggest player in the rideshare gig economy industry. 

Uber Australia’s ridesharing revenue grew in 2023, reportedly to $646 million – well above its nearest rideshare rivals, Didi, at $14.3 million. The company’s global profits – the combined figure of revenue minus expenditure – have previously been much more modest, and most years it has run at a loss.

Taxis still hold a significant market share too, with A2B, Australia’s biggest taxi company and owner of 13Cabs and Silver Service, bringing in $147 million in revenue in 2023. 

Allan Fels, former ACCC chair, says Uber has substantial market power in Australia, even if competition from Didi, and taxis, prevents it from being labelled a pure monopoly.

Rod Barton is a former taxi driver and a former MP in the Parliament of Victoria. He says Uber’s market-dominant position puts consumers in the crosshairs when prices surge – a reference to when the app’s algorithm inflates the price of a ride in times of peak demand. 

“You’ve got this problem when it starts to rain, or when Collingwood is playing Essendon [in the AFL] and suddenly the price gets out of control,” he says, adding that it becomes a problem where taxis ask for a set price instead of turning on their meters (a practice that is illegal unless the trip is pre-booked) or refuse shorter trips.

“The government has really lost control of this space,” he says. 

Surging ahead

Asked whether he thought Uber used its market position to the detriment of consumers, Fels, who served on – but later abandoned – Uber’s Global Advisory Board, said that there is no law in Australia that prohibits high prices.

Dr Rohan Miller from the University of Sydney Business School says more competition in the rideshare market could benefit consumers at times when the Uber price is surging. 

“As a consumer, you should see them as interchangeable. Not enough people are playing this trade-off game between the prices of taxis versus the prices of Ubers, working out which benefits you,” Miller says. 

The benefits of having one big player

Independent transport and infrastructure expert Marion Terrill says there are network benefits for consumers of having one player, such as Uber, dominating so much of the market. 

“When I’m a rider, what I really value is my ride turning up quickly. So the more people choose Uber rather than some other service or taxis, then the more likely it is that I’ll get matched with a driver more quickly. It’s the nature of the service that density of users and providers is good for consumers,” she says. 

Terrill adds that even price surges, which can be annoying and financially detrimental for customers, serve to encourage more drivers to get on the road and work for the app, as they can earn more money at a quicker speed. 

“You don’t want a situation where every driver is working a set shift. The idea is that you can have a more responsive supply of drivers, I think that’s a good thing,” she says.

A driver’s experience 

Jay Young has been driving Uber in Newcastle, NSW for over two years and says he appreciates the flexible hours and his ability to fit trips around his chauffeuring clients. 

He says the surge pricing map shown to Uber drivers does influence where he goes and the hours he works. 

“I’m able to kind of make a decision, I’m gonna head over there and then I’m gonna try and get a trip with a reasonable amount of surge on it just to boost your earnings. Because without the surge, the earnings aren’t fantastic,” he says. 

“Obviously, you’re gonna do what you can in order to boost those earnings, and if that means working those unsociable hours to 3am or 4am in the morning and dealing with the drunks, that’s what I’m gonna do,” Young says.

Young, a member of the Transport Workers Union, which represents rideshare drivers, says Uber should be committing to minimum pay and conditions for drivers and also paying things like superannuation. But he says he keeps driving with the company regardless, because the earnings are better than with Didi or elsewhere.  

“If it’s a particularly slow period, then it can be really a struggle and you have to push yourself to work more and more hours to make ends meet,” Young says. 

Uber responds 

A spokesperson for Uber says the company operates in a competitive environment, but declined to provide figures on their share of the market compared to taxis, citing commercial sensitivity. 

“The advent of ridesharing has offered greater choice and improved experiences for consumers across the point-to-point transport industry, as well as new earnings opportunities for hundreds of thousands of Australian workers,” Uber says. 

“Aussies have many choices when it comes to how they get around town, and the local environment remains competitive for point-to-point transport players. Australians regularly use Uber as a safe and reliable choice to get from A to B, and governments across the country have recognised ridesharing as an important part of the transport mix,” the spokesperson adds.

Neil Sipe, professor of planning at the University of Queensland says Uber has succeeded in completely disrupting the rideshare economy in Australia as well as in many other countries in the world. Now it faces the challenge of turning its market position into a regular and consistent profit. 

“Amazon went over a decade without turning a profit based on venture capital investment. There was lots of revenue, but not much profit. Uber is operating off a similar model, but eventually the capital runs out and you have to be a company that turns a profit as well,” he says. 

The post Uber is dominating, is this good for Aussie consumers? appeared first on ����Vlog.

Twenty-one of those workers died that day or in the days following, and dozens of others were seriously injured. 

The workplace tragedy happened after a fire broke out at a nickel smelter owned by Chinese conglomerate Tsingshan Stainless Steel Indonesia. 

In the days following the fire, Indonesian authorities told Reuters there were strong indications that safety procedures had not been followed at the site. 

But despite the dangers to workers and locals, the nickel trade in Indonesia is booming. The country continues to increase its nickel output for many buyers, including several international car makers who need the coveted metal to make electric vehicle batteries.  

A year on, activists say working and safety conditions at sites across the region have seen little improvement. In addition, the environmental impacts on communities surrounding the mines and smelters continue to worsen.

Indonesian nickel 

Nickel is traditionally used in stainless steel manufacturing, which still consumes most of the world’s nickel supply. But production demands are shifting with the rapid rise of electric vehicles. 

There are many different uses for nickel, but EVs are driving demand for the critical metal. As the sale of EVs in countries like Australia grows, the mining and smelting industry in Indonesia is racing to keep up.

Between 2010 and 2023, global nickel production more than doubled. Indonesia currently makes up around 50% of all global nickel output and that’s expected to grow in the coming decades.

Mohan Yellishetty, an associate professor at Monash University’s department of civil engineering, says Indonesia is aiming to produce 75% of the world’s nickel by 2040. The country produces nickel at a much cheaper price than competitors like Australia, so is undercutting domestic production here.

To help grow the local economy and create more jobs, Jakarta has moved to ban the export of raw nickel ore exports. Since 2022, minerals have been required to be processed in-country before being exported. 

That has led to an investment boom, mainly from Chinese companies. While much of the processed nickel is exported to China and EV manufacturing companies, western car makers hungry for nickel are also major buyers. 

Krista Shennum from international environmental NGO Climate Rights International says Tesla, Ford and Volkswagen all have ties to the Indonesian nickel supply chain.  

“It is the responsibility of those companies to ensure that they are using their leverage as a purchaser to demand higher standards, [and] to demand that the companies they’re buying nickel from are not contributing to human rights abuses, they’re not taking land from people and polluting people’s water, and [that] they’re really upholding the rights of local communities and of workers.”

Environmental concerns 

Shennum and her colleagues travelled to Indonesia in 2023 to document the huge environmental costs of the nickel boom. Their report, , highlights the stories of dozens of villagers who had lost land to nickel mines or whose traditional fishing lifestyles had disappeared due to poisoned waterways. 

“Some companies, in coordination with Indonesian police and military personnel, have engaged in land-grabbing, coercion, and intimidation of Indigenous Peoples and other communities, who are experiencing serious and potentially existential threats to their traditional ways of life,” the report reads. 

“You have mass destruction of the natural environment … there are really beautiful forests that are just being absolutely destroyed. You have essentially [mine] tailings that aren’t properly being managed,” says Shennum. “We visited entire communities that no longer have access to clean drinking water.” 

A further concern is the massive amounts of coal used to power nickel smelting. At three of the biggest nickel industrial parks – Obi Island, Morowali and Weda Bay – the country has planned to double the nickel industry’s current power usage. The amount being invested in renewable energy projects to power the nickel industry is just a fraction of the investment in coal.

The fallacy of using coal to power the ‘green vehicle’ revolution is not lost on Shennum. 

“At Weda Bay Industrial Park, once it’s fully operational, there will be 12 new captive coal plants that didn’t exist five years ago,” she says. “That’s 3.8 gigawatts of coal capacity, or roughly what is burned in all of Spain every year, just at this one industrial park in Indonesia.”

Concerns for workers persist 

Zakki Amali is the research manager at Trend Asia, a Jakarta-based NGO that focuses on sustainable development in the region. 

He says the labour rights and safety of workers and nickel smelting plants around the country hasn’t improved significantly since the disaster in December last year. 

“The safety situation remains as usual, because at the nickel smelters there are accidents all the time, so safety is a big issue,” Zakki says.

According to local media reports, as of December 2024, almost a year on from the disaster, fewer than half of the 50 tenants of the Morowali Industrial Park had completed their mandatory occupational health and safety certification from the government.  

Many of the workers in these industrial parks come from other parts of Indonesia, and there are also many Chinese labourers. 

Zakki says he is concerned the situation for workers will only get worse. The government led by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, who took power in October 2024, has set ambitious goals to grow the economy. 

Zakki believes Prabowo’s administration won’t focus on workers safety and the environment because of its focus on economic growth. “The government only cares about how to extract all commodities from Indonesia to grow the economy,” he says. 

Australian ties 

While Indonesian nickel companies may have displaced Australian nickel mines, which struggle to compete with the low-cost product coming from our northern neighbour, Australian companies are determined not to miss out on the action. 

Nickel Industries Limited is an ASX-listed company with growing investments in Indonesia. It owns a controlling stake in the Hengjaya Mine in Sulawesi and four smelting furnaces. Nickel Industries also has a strategic investment partnership with Chinese company Tsingshan, which holds other nickel investments in the area.

Nickel Industries has had no record of human rights abuses, and analysts like Yellishetty say Australian companies can have a positive impact on improving worker conditions in Indonesia. 

“Australia has a high standard when it comes to these things. Of course it may not be as high when operating in Indonesia [compared to in Australia], but it would still be relatively high in the global context,” he says.

Canberra has also sought to help facilitate the growth of investment in Indonesian nickel from Australian companies by signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Indonesia on EVs and nickel in November 2023. 

“By collaborating on growing strong and diverse clean energy supply chains, both countries can further our shared economic interests as well as our trade and investment links,” Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic said at the time. 

“This mechanism also paves the way for harnessing joint scientific and research studies, including around critical minerals processing and battery development, and facilitating partnerships between businesses in both our countries.”

Role for EV buyers

Yellishetty says Australian buyers of electric vehicles have a role to play in pressuring car makers to be more open and transparent about their supply chains and encouraging companies to improve environmental and labour conditions.

“Most people on the receiving end don’t have an idea of how a product moves, [or] where particular components that go into manufacturing EVs are manufactured. But car companies can be more upfront about this,” he says.

Shennum agrees that consumers are likely in the dark about what has taken place in the manufacture of their vehicle.

“There really needs to be an understanding that what’s happening at the current level, in terms of burning fossil fuels to power nickel, stealing land from people and harming people and Indigenous peoples’ rights, is just not in line with a just energy transition we want to see.”

“The way that it’s currently being done is not a climate solution. You can’t build new coal plants to power electric vehicles in countries like Australia and call that a climate solution,” she says.

Update 14 Jan 2025: An earlier version of this story included BYD as one of the car manufacturers that use nickel from Indonesia, but the company has confirmed it no longer uses nickel in its electric vehicle batteries.

The post A dark side of the electric vehicle boom appeared first on ����Vlog.

On this page:

• Why do you need a headlight restoration kit?
• Turtlewax 2 in 1 Headlight Cleaner & Sealant
• Meguiar's Two Step Headlight Restoration Kit
• What we found
• DIY headlight restoration options
• The ����Vlog verdict

Dull, discoloured car headlights are a drag, but help is at hand thanks to kits that promise to leave your lenses luminous as new. 

Commercial car headlight restoration kits are designed to quickly and easily remove the oxidisation, haziness and discolouration that builds up on polycarbonate headlights over time, reducing light transmission and potentially becoming a defect.

Available at a range of price points, these kits all promise to restore your headlights to their former glory, but do they work?

Why do you need a headlight restoration kit?

Over time, the ravages of the Australian environment can wreak havoc on outdoor surfaces, and your car is no exception. Interiors can crack and fade in the sun, and your car’s paint and plastic headlights can oxidise and discolour.

Dull, cloudy paint might be the most obvious sign of weathering, but crazed, yellowed headlight lenses not only look unappealing, they can have substantially reduced light transmission, which has obvious implications for safety.

In NSW, the Road Transport (Vehicle Registration) Regulation 2017 light vehicle standards rules state that a low-beam headlight must be able to illuminate the road ahead for at least 25 metres and a high-beam headlight for at least 50 metres, and other states have similar regulations.

If your headlights are so cloudy and faded that they can no longer achieve this, your car might fail its pink slip inspection, or you could even receive a defect notice and accompanying fine from the police.

Unfortunately, there’s little you can do to prevent your headlights from weathering over time, but the good news is there’s a range of techniques and products out there that can restore them to their former glory.

The internet is awash with DIY techniques, including buffing with avocado, toothpaste, car polish or even fine grit sandpaper or wet and dry, with varying levels of effectiveness.

There are also commercial products specifically designed for headlight restoration that promise to power through the job with maximum efficiency. 

We picked two popular products at opposite ends of the price spectrum, rolled up our sleeves and got to work on restoring some badly faded lights to find out.

Turtlewax 2 in 1 Headlight Cleaner & Sealant

RRP: $22.99

A two-in-one formulation, Turtlewax Headlight Cleaner & Sealant combines a cleaning compound to remove light oxidisation and yellowing from polycarbonate automotive lights with a chemical sealant that claims to help prevent future degradation.

The two-in-one formulation is convenient, but you need to supply your own applicator cloth – not a big deal, but notable considering the Meguiar’s product comes with everything you need, including applicators. 

Interestingly, Turtlewax also produces a multi-step kit for more heavily damaged headlights – this kit contains a separate clarifying compound, abrasive ‘restoration pads’, and sealant applicators for twice the price.

The instructions are fairly simple – wash and dry your lights, then apply a small amount of cleaner/sealant to a cotton cloth and rub it on the lens using a firm pressure until the plastic becomes clear. Once done, buff the light with a clean cloth. Additional applications may be needed for best results, particularly for badly faded headlights.

Meguiar’s Two Step Headlight Restoration Kit

RRP: $98.99

Like the Turtlewax, Meguiar’s headlight restoration kit is designed to restore dull, yellowed and oxidised headlights, then seal them to help protect against re-oxidisation. 

Unlike the Turtlewax product though, this requires two steps – cleaning, then sealing. The kit also comes with cleaning pads, which can be used in conjunction with Meguiar’s ‘DA Power System’ – a rotary polisher drill attachment – for faster application.

Step one is to apply a small amount of cleaning solution to the supplied pads and thoroughly clean the entire headlight using a back and forth motion (or the aforementioned DA Power System) until there’s a uniform frosted appearance across the entire headlight, then wipe clean with a damp cloth and dry thoroughly. 

As with the Turtlewax, you may require multiple applications (we opted for five for our badly faded lights) for best results.

Step two is to apply two applications of the Headlight Restoration Coating, leaving 3–5 minutes between coats (the coating takes 24 hours to cure fully). Meguiar’s cites laboratory results to say the coating provides 12 months’ protection against re-oxidisation.

What we found

We rolled up our sleeves and got to work on a ����Vlog vehicle that was exhibiting some fairly major headlight degradation. Starting with the Meguiar’s kit, we gave one light five cycles of rubbing and buffing with the cleaning solution, followed by the requisite two applications of the headlight coating. 

Given how badly faded the headlight lens was before we started, the results were immediately obvious and pleasantly surprising.

Switching to the Turtlewax, we gave the other headlight five cycles of application and buffing. Being an all-in-one product, this was a simpler process, and while also effective, it clearly wasn’t doing as good a job as the Meguiar’s restoration kit, which is understandable given it’s promoted as a lighter duty product.

DIY headlight restoration options

We’re a little wary of taking advice from random strangers on the internet at the best of times, but especially when it comes to using abrasives or chemicals on our precious vehicles, so we’ll leave these methods up to you to experiment with if you dare.

Popular chemical cleaning suggestions include vinegar, avocado and, ahem, urine – the theory being that with vigorous rubbing, these are acidic enough to strip the oxidisation from your lights. On the abrasive side, bicarbonate of soda, car polish and even toothpaste are also widely spoken about on forums. 

Aside from leaving your headlights minty fresh or smelling like a salad, we’d be sceptical these methods would have much of an effect, and have the potential to make the situation worse.

Not to mention none of these options provide the protective coating a for-purpose commercial cleaner includes, so any gains may be short-lived.

The ����Vlog verdict

These headlight restoration kits both did a great job of removing oxidisation and yellowing from faded polycarbonate automotive lenses (headlights, tail lights, indicators etc). 

At 15–20 minutes per headlight and requiring no special skills or tools, restoring your lights’ faded looks and improving the performance of your headlights with one of these kits is a fast and inexpensive chore that virtually anyone can tackle in an afternoon.

For particularly badly oxidised lights, it may even save you from a defect notice, which means your kit has practically paid for itself, and it’s way cheaper than completely replacing your headlights (the cost of which can run into many hundreds of dollars).

The results from our testing were, ahem, clear – virtually all the haze and yellowness were removed, and our headlights look great. More importantly, the lights were noticeably brighter on our nighttime test drive.

While comparatively expensive and a little more involved to apply than the Turtlewax product, the Meguiar’s kit performed noticeably better and would be our choice for heavily oxidised lenses.

On the other hand, the Turtlewax two-in-one was effective, simpler to apply and only a quarter of the price. If we hadn’t seen it in comparison to the other Meguiar’s-treated light, we would have been happy with the result, and it would be our choice for treating mild haziness and discolouration.

The post Do headlight restoration kits work? appeared first on ����Vlog.

On this page:

• What are biofuels and how do they work?
• What is liquid petroleum gas?
• Save on fuel by choosing a hybrid car
• The pros and cons of electric cars
• Can you downsize your car?
• Driving tips to save on fuel

And with oil supplies dwindling and greenhouse gas emissions increasing, there are good environmental reasons to look at fuel alternatives. So how do you balance the budget and the environment when it comes to filling up your car?

What are biofuels and how do they work?

Like the name suggests, biofuels are made from newly-grown plant or animal matter. Biofuels aren’t new – Henry Ford’s first car ran on alcohol and Rudolf Diesel’s engine first fired with peanut oil. Two biofuels, ethanol and biodiesel, can be used in most existing motor vehicles and are pretty easy to handle.

In theory, using biofuels can cut down your car’s greenhouse gas emissions because burning them releases only the carbon that was absorbed when they were growing. That means releasing less CO2 into the air than the millions of years of carbon stored in the oil that powers most modern cars. But the green credentials of these fuel alternatives do come with some caveats.

The pros and cons of biofuels

Ethanol (E10) is an alcohol fuel usually produced by fermenting sugars from plants such as sugar cane, wheat and corn. Since 2011, the base unleaded fuel option in Australia is now E10 – petrol with a mandatory 10% ethanol.

Good points

• Made from many sources of renewable materials, including waste products like sorghum stems, spent grain or sugar cane.
• Reduces reliance on non-renewable oil.
• Lower CO2 emissions than petrol, when production and use are considered.
• Generally produces less local air pollution than petrol.
• Safe to use in most new cars at concentrations in petrol of up to 10%. Many new cars have an “E10 suitable” sticker near the fuel filler.

Bad points

• Pure ethanol has lower energy content than petrol (67%), which means you travel a shorter distance on the same size tank of fuel.
• Can compete with other crops for land use and therefore raise food prices, which harms poorer consumers in developing countries because food is a big part of their weekly costs.
• Agricultural production can damage the quality and biodiversity of the local environment through the clearing of native vegetation, monoculture production and introducing invasive species.
• Shouldn’t be used on some older vehicles – you can check the list of suitable cars at .
• If produced with artificial fertilisers and transported a long way, energy return and greenhouse benefits can be low or negative.
• Minor modifications are required to run a vehicle on pure ethanol. Only E10 (a petrol-ethanol mix) is sold in Australia.

Biodiesel (B20) is a fuel produced from vegetable and animal oils. B20 is more commonly sold than pure biodiesel – it’s a blend of 20% biodiesel and 80% mineral diesel.

Good points

• Made from many sources of renewable materials, including used cooking oil.
• Reduces reliance on non-renewable oil.
• Significantly lower CO2 emissions than diesel, when production and use are considered.
• Biodegradable and non-toxic.
• Generally produces much less local air pollution than diesel.
• Pure biodiesel can be used in unmodified diesel engines or it can be mixed with regular diesel.
• If made from agricultural or cooking residues it’s cheaper than if made from specially grown sources, uses less land and water and has better CO2 performance.

Bad points

• Pure biodiesel has lower energy content than diesel (86%), which means you travel a shorter distance on the same size fuel tank.
• Can compete with other crops for land use and raise food prices, especially for poorer consumers in developing countries.
• Can damage the quality and biodiversity of the local environment via the clearing of native vegetation, monoculture production and introducing invasive species.
• If produced with artificial fertilisers and transported a long way, energy return and greenhouse benefits can be low or negative.
• Emits higher quantities of nitrogen oxides than diesel.
• Becomes less fluid in cold climates, so vehicle modification is required if using pure or high-proportion biodiesel blends.
• Limited but increasing consumer availability.

What is liquid petroleum gas?

Liquid petroleum gas (LPG) is extracted from natural gas or derived as a byproduct of the petroleum industry. Car LPG is a blend of mainly propane and butane, so you can’t swap it with the LPG you use to fire up the barbecue.

The pros and cons of LPG

Good points

• Causes less local air pollution than petrol.
• Some reduction in CO2 emissions compared with petrol for a given trip.
• Petrol and diesel vehicles can be converted for LPG use. Most car conversions enable dual-fuel use, for example, petrol and LPG.
• More than 3200 outlets sell LPG – making it more available than other alternative fuels.
• Substantially cheaper per litre than regular petrol because it requires minimal processing.

Bad points

• Made from non-renewable resources.
• Still emits a high amount of CO2.
• Lower energy content than petrol, which means you travel a shorter distance on the same size tank of fuel. You need about 30% more LPG to go the same distance as petrol.
• Requires expensive car conversion with an initial outlay of $2000–4000, so it’s more attractive for higher-mileage vehicles.
• Some new cars are built to use LPG only.
• Some vehicles can’t be converted due to space limitations.
• You’ll need to consider not only the current price of LPG, but what it might cost in future.
• A $2000 government rebate on LPG conversions ended on 30 June 2014, with nothing new on the horizon.

Converting your car to LPG

Before you convert your car, contact the manufacturer to find out whether it’s suitable, and whether the conversion will affect the car’s warranty.

All the components, as well as the installation, repair and maintenance of LPG systems, are covered by mandatory standards and other government regulations.

Only businesses that meet special licensing requirements are permitted to install, repair or adjust a car’s LPG system. Your state or territory transport authority can give you details of licensed installers in your area and has information on particular requirements. You’ll also need to tell them once your car has been converted.

It’s unlikely you’ll pay a different insurance premium for a converted car, but you should contact your insurer to make sure. In any case, you’ll still need to let them know once your car has been converted.

The components

An LPG conversion usually includes the following main components:

Tank: Although you can convert your car to run on LPG only, the LPG system is usually installed in addition to the fuel system (dual-fuel mode), greatly increasing the distance you can travel between fill-ups. LPG tanks are considered as safe, if not safer, than petrol tanks in an accident.

Fuel lock valve: Prevents the flow of gas when the engine stops.

Vaporiser regulator (converter): Regulates the outlet gas pressure according to engine demands.

Air/gas mixer: Mixes LPG vapour with air to light the fuel.

LPG control processor: Operates in conjunction with the car’s on-board computer to accurately meter the amount of gas for increased economy.

If you’re going for a duel-fuel conversion you’ll need to make sure that all emission control, engine control and engine management systems and devices remain operational.

You’ll also need to use the fuel system every now and then to keep it functional and safe – recommendations range from 10% to 30% of the time.

When will it pay off?

LPG costs about half as much as unleaded petrol, but it doesn’t contain as much energy as petrol – you’ll need about 20% more LPG to drive the same distance.

The payback time depends on the number of kilometres you drive each year, your car’s fuel consumption, the cost of the conversion and the price difference between petrol and LPG.

Make sure you assess your situation before you convert to LPG – it may take longer to pay for itself than you want to keep the car for. For example:

• You drive your family car for 20,000 km a year – mainly in city traffic, where it uses about 12.5L/100km of petrol.
• On average, you pay $1.40 a litre for petrol, and 78 cents a litre for LPG.
• Your petrol costs are $3500 per year.
• The same distance travelled with LPG costs $2340 (at 15L/100km) – a saving of $1160.
• Say the conversion costs $3000, it will pay for itself after two-and-a-half years.

Using the same calculations for a small car using 8L/100km of petrol (and 9.6L/100km of LPG), travelling 10,000km per year and being converted for $1600: the savings are $371 per year, and it’ll take about four-and-a-half years to recover the conversion costs.

Save on fuel by choosing a hybrid car

Biofuels and LPG aren’t the only alternatives to petrol. Hybrid and electric cars can help cut your costs and reduce your impact on the environment.

Hybrid vehicles use two fuel sources. For example, a car that can switch between LPG from one tank to petrol from another could be considered a hybrid. The original hybrid, the Toyota Prius, combines a conventional petrol engine with a rechargeable electric battery to achieve better fuel economy.

The Prius boasts tiny average fuel consumption figures of 3.9L/100km, and its batteries recharge during normal driving when you’re decelerating. The catch, of course, is the high purchase price. This puts the relatively small Prius on par with many medium-sized passenger vehicles when it comes to whole-of-life costs. The same applies to most of the other hybrids on the market.

The pros and cons of electric cars

The technology to power electric cars has been around for a long time, but it’s really only in the past decade that major car manufacturers have been investing in the area. True electric cars are powered only by rechargeable electric batteries.

Electric cars have some big positives: no combustion engine means virtually no noise, they’re cheaper and easier to power up because you can do both at home, and their CO2 emissions are generally much lower than petrol vehicles.

However, they do come with some drawbacks. Generally electric cars are expensive, with most models sitting in the $40,000–60,000 range. They also have a more limited driving range than hybrid or petrol models – ranging from 170–700km on one battery – which can mean ‘range anxiety’ for drivers on longer trips. The bigger the range, the higher the price.

Most big car brands have at least one electric model available, but the total Australian market is still very small compared to conventional petrol-fuelled cars. 

Can you downsize your car?

If doing without a car is not an option, you don’t necessarily have to buy a “green” car to make a significant difference to your bills and the environment. 

Choosing the right car for your needs and driving style has a massive impact on your costs. If you’re just driving around town, you may not need a family car. Instead, an inexpensive two-seater can have comparable fuel use and emissions to a much more expensive hybrid.

Small cars can cost about one third less to run than a 4WD, and they’re often cheap to buy, so their whole-of-life costs are less than half that of a 4WD. Could a rental 4WD cover the times you need off-road or towing capacity?

Check the fuel labels when buying a new car

When you shop for a new car, good fuel efficiency should be a must-have. It’s easy – all new vehicles have to carry a fuel consumption label. If space for seven is what you need, buying a medium-sized people-mover instead of a large 4WD will save you money both at purchase time and at the petrol pump.

While electric and hybrid cars make up most of the performers, you’ll generally find a few small petrol models in the list. Similarly, the models with the top star ratings on the site are electric and plug-in hybrid models with 5.5 or 6 stars, with the better petrol and diesel models coming in at 4 stars.

So if you want to stick with petrol, find a car that runs on regular unleaded fuel, has respectable fuel use and emissions figures, is cheap to buy and is popular enough that you may be able to find a recent second-hand model.

Driving tips to save on fuel

Driving smarter and less is part of the solution. When half the car trips in Australian cities are less than five kilometres, we could all look at driving less often. Converting even a few of these trips to walking, cycling or public transport makes an impact.

We’re not all able to switch cars or fuel type in the short term, so remember that in addition to the car and fuel, driving style also determines your costs and the costs to the environment.

If you only need a car occasionally, car-sharing schemes can be a great alternative. Sign up and you can book a vehicle online or over the phone for as long as you need it. They currently operate in most major capitals and some larger cities.

Become an eco-driver

A car’s reported fuel consumption, in litres per 100km, is based on driving under standardised test conditions, but your driving style can increase that figure dramatically.

“Eco-driving”, as it’s been termed, is not only good for the environment, but can save you money and stress as well. Here’s how you can be an eco-driver.

• Plan your trip well. Try to achieve several tasks with the one trip.
• Take your time. You’ll use less fuel if you drive a bit slower.
• Shed the load. Take unnecessary items out of the car and take off your roof rack when it’s not in use.
• Keep it smooth. Avoid hard braking and acceleration.
• Switch off. Ease up on the air-conditioning, and stop the car and walk in to the fast food restaurant rather than idle in a long drive-through queue.
• Maintain it. Regularly check your tyre pressure is right for your car and tyres, and have your car serviced often.

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