Toyota set to sell its fuel cell car in the UK

A CLEVER new Toyota which runs on hydrogen fuel cells – meaning the only thing coming out of its rear end is water vapour – will be introduced in the UK later this year.

Toyota said its Mirai model, a five-door hatchback similar in size to the petrol-powered Auris model, had been a hit in Japan so the manufacturer is now planning to sell it across Europe too.

My name is David and I'm a fuel economy addict

MY EYES light up as I get ever bigger readouts emerging from the dashboard. Over the past few weeks, the cut ‘n’ thrust of the morning commute has made a numbers junkie out of me.

Only it isn’t the need for speed or a readiness for revs and redlines that’s got me hooked. It’s the cheap-looking digital display – seemingly stolen from a Casio calculator – that tells me what I’m getting for my gallon.

Regular readers will know that earlier this summer I chucked a grand in the direction of a 51-plate Ford Mondeo. It’s a Ghia X which means it comes with electric everything, a feisty foursome of leather seats and the joys of cruise control, but by far and away its most impressive feature is the two litre beast which lives beneath the bonnet. While I’ll never get bored of its silky smoothness or the 148 Dagenham-bred horses which haul it along, it’s the fuel economy which proves so frustratingly addictive.

Every drive is a mission to eke another tenth of a mile to the gallon out of it. Thanks to a crummy digital readout between the speedo and the rev counter, I have inadvertently become the polar opposite of a boy racer, completely obsessed with fuel economy.

This, by the way, isn’t my attempt to get all politically trendy and jump on the cost-of-living debate. Fuel’s expensive whatever you’re driving, and the Mondeo is always doing somewhere in the region of 34 miles to the gallon. That’s exactly what my much lighter Mazda MX-5 used to get from its 1.6 litre engine, so for a thumping great two litre to get that from a far heavier saloon is, in my book, extraordinary.

But it’s never enough because that display compels you to try and beat your own record every time you go for a drive. Why do 34 to the gallon when you can do 34.1?

It’s ridiculous; it’s the fastest and most powerful car I’ve ever owned and yet every morning I drive it to work like an elderly parish priest, gently caressing the gas pedal and politely declining overtaking opportunities because of the cranial rush you get from being awarded an extra tenth of the mile to the gallon. On one afternoon, I actually got my photographer friend in the passenger seat to take a shot of that glorious moment when I got 35 whole miles to the gallon. For reasons I'm still not entirely sure of, it mattered.

The first step to dealing with an addiction is talking about it. I’m a fuel economy addict, but I guess it’s better than being hooked on speed.

The easy way to work out what you're getting for your gallon

THE pensioners in their mollycuddled Nissan Micras powered past me as I puffed uselessly up the incline. My 40-year-old car, despite looking a bit sporty, doesn't really do hills.

It didn't really help that I was a bit nervous this time last Sunday. You'll probably already know that I've got an old MG and I've been on all sorts of adventures with it, but in the two year it's spent under my wing it's not once ventured beyond the fields of West Lancashire. Mainly because I wasn't entirely convinced it'd go much further.

But there's a first time for everything and as I gingerly ventured onto the M6 and pointed that never-ending bonnet northwards I was keen to find out not just whether my MG BGT could make it to places outside Lancashire without conking out on the hard shoulder. I also wanted to answer - and stay with me on this one - the all important question of fuel economy.

If you've ever wanted to work out what your car actually does to the gallon - and it's worth doing, because most of the manufacturers' figures are a tad optimistic - there's an easy way of doing it. Simply brim your tank until the fuel pump clicks, drive it around for 100 miles or so, and brim it again. Even though you've got to faff about converting the amount from litres into UK gallons you can fairly easy, and accurately, work out whether your car's as frugal as it should be.

I've done it with each and every one of my motors - in fact, I did with the MX-5 the other week, which despite being driven with a particularly weighty right foot around the windy roads of Wales still returned 34mpg. The best I've managed so far was with my old Renault 5, which despite having been to the moon and back mileage-wise still knocked up a respectable 43 to the gallon. Your car, if you're sensible and drive a diesel hatch like everyone else, should do at least 50 on a good run.

So what about the MG, which uses two enormous carburettors to shovel high-octane petrol into an engine designed in the Fifties and made largely from pig iron? Well, on a 150 mile run on motorways, country lanes and the A6 through rural Lancashire it managed 25.3mpg. Pretty poor compared to a new car, I'll admit, but not bad for an older model I'm still smitten with.

What's more, my car did an entire journey to somewhere far away, and back again, and didn't break down! A summer of adventures await...

Tell everyone not to panic buy and that's exactly what they'll do

LAST week's panic over petrol was like something out of a film. Specifically, a scene out of Patriot Games, one of my favourite films of all time.

If you haven't seen it, and - like me - you prefer your films with car chases and explosions aplenty, then I urge you to go out, get a copy on DVD and enjoy Harrison Ford shooting at Sean Bean. Because, amid all the IRA-themed action, there is a message which serves as a bit of a bizarre metaphor for panic buying petrol.

In one particular scene Ford's character, the jaded ex intelligence agent Jack Ryan, gets paid a visit by a CIA boss, who's popped round to his house to let him know that a gang of Irish paramilitaries are a bit peeved off with him. The boss says it's nothing to worry about but Jack Ryan, being the quintessentially American action hero, works out that being told there's nothing to worry about is the something to be worried about. It's pyschology. Tell people there's nothing wrong and almost always they'll assume the opposite.

Which is why all you Jack Ryans out there, having been told not to panic buy petrol, immediately went out and bought loads of petrol. You were told to top your tanks up. You were told not to panic buy. Do NOT panic, they said. Yet the more you mention the word panic - even when it's preceded by the word “don't” - the more ingrained it becomes in your mentality. Cue the queues spilling out of every petrol station for miles around, and all this because of a strike that hadn't even been confirmed. People were brimming their tanks en masse at £1.45 a litre, a scenario made even worse because the Twitterati - a shadowy group connected with events going back as far as last summer's riots - were turning the panic volume up to 11. As soon as you even mention panic buying, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

With the local elections coming up I'm not allowed to get political and blame the Government. In the run up to polling day I'm not allowed to point out that David Cameron told you not to panic buy. Or that he did suggest everyone went out and topped their tanks up, just to be sure. Or that Francis Maude admitted telling everyone to bring their jerrycans and stock up on fuel was a mistake. This is a Champion blog and, naturally, we couldn't comment. Other than to observe that lots of you have been out panic buying at petrol stations.

Panic buying petrol. Panicking about people panic buying petrol. Just panicking in general. Don't do it. Please?

Panic buying hits petrol stations across Sefton and West Lancashire

IT'S a curious contradiction. Petrol is, most motorists would argue, too expensive, and yet this week scores of them have been queuing up to buy as much of it as they can.

Over the past few days we've been keeping a close eye on threats of a strike by fuel tanker drivers - and the panic buying it's prompted right across our area and other parts of Britain. It's one of those stories that affects almost everyone - even if you don't run a car yourself - and unsurprisingly plenty of you have already got in touch to share your experiences.

The thing is, of course, that panic buying is a self-fulfilling prophecy, because it'll happen as soon as you - or rather, cabinet ministers - allude to it. At the time of writing no strike has actually been confirmed, but if you'd just emerged from a cave and taken a look at the number of "SORRY, NO FUEL" signs out at the moment you'd draw a very different conclusion.

It'll also be interested to see what effect the Twitter generation has on the course of events; the last time there were widespread fuel shortages, way back in 2000, it and Facebook hadn't even been invented. It, is, in many ways, a bit like last summer's riots. Social networking is simultaneously its best mate and its sworn enemy.

Without wanting to, er, fuel the panic, we'd be interested to know how you've been affected. Get in touch via all the usual Life On Cars channels...

Budget 2012: How motoring groups reacted

THE price of petrol will go up by around three pence a litre later this summer, motoring groups have warned this week after Chancellor George Osborne announced his Budget.

Among the changes the Conservative/Lib Dem Coalition announced this week were changes to car fuel benefit charges, a revision of how car company tax operates, and the announcement that the price of fuel will go up by around three pence in August.

Here's how a wide variety of motoring groups reacted to the announcements in the Commons:

"A free-flowing national network cannot be built without proper road charging. If the Prime Minister's advisors have not told him this simple fact he needs to replace them with people who understand the problem.
"A true leader will explain to motorists that we cannot expect a first-class strategic road network without paying for it."
- Environmental Transport Association

"The Chancellor has squandered a very real opportunity to support UK industry, jobs and economic recovery, by his Budget policy on fuel duty.
"Mr Osborne has lost an opportunity to benefit every household in the UK and he must be persuaded to change his policy."
- Freight Transport Association

“Future changes in company car tax rates and capital allowances will drive fleet managers and drivers into lower emission cars at a faster rate.
"We are, however, disappointed that the Chancellor has decided to press ahead with the August 1, 2012 3.02p per litre rise in fuel duty."
- The Association of Car Fleet Operators

“The Chancellor’s actions to improve research and development tax credits and develop a catapult for transport systems and future cities will help trigger substantial extra business investment in the years ahead."
"The UK automotive industry is attracting major levels of investment and creating real opportunities for engineering and manufacturing businesses."
- Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders

"At a time of record prices at the pumps the August increase in duty is a budget blow-out which will force drivers off the road and could bring a summer of discontent for many."
- AA

"George Osborne said that taxes should be fair, simple, predictable and support work. Motoring tax fails on at least three of these measures and it is time for a review of exactly what fuel duty is for and who it impacts most." - The RAC Foundation

Do you think the 2012 Budget has helped or hindered motorists? Share your thoughts by sending an email to david.simister@champnews.com or call 01704 392404.

Sorry, Mr Cameron, but £1.30 a litre is just too much

A MAN I interviewed for a piece in last week's Champion was preaching to the converted. His message? That the price you're paying at the pumps has GOT to come down.

I've known for ages that the cost of petrol and diesel has been ridiculous bordering on extortionate, but after a friendly natter with Mike Heybourne, a man whose business is getting people to where they want to go, I can't hold my breath on this one any longer. Something's really got to be done about the price of fuel at the moment.

If you're older than, say, ten, you might remember that way back in the year 2000, a band of truckers and cabbies got very cross with the price of diesel, blockaded the nation's fuel depots and swiftly brought the nation to a halt. Their beef was that a litre of diesel cost 85p. Now, a decade on, it's nudging £1.40.

Lots of people I've spoken to reckon it's only a matter of time before the blockades and go-slows are back, but I honestly don't think they'll make much difference ten years later. Those protests, and the ones against the war in Iraq and rises in tuition fees, let Governments know that people were cross. But they still went ahead with their plans anyway.

David Cameron's “fuel stabiliser”, which lowers duty as oil prices go up, and vice versa? I wouldn't hold your breath on this one, especially after Danny Alexander, a fellow member of the Coalition, said the Government wouldn't “sacrifice income willy nilly” to help motorists already being made poorer by a string of cuts they've made elsewhere.

Nor do I think the Government's preferred alternative - the long line of electric cars being launched this year - is any good, partly because the majority of the UK's charging points are in London and partly because electric cars are slow, expensive and stupid. Until I can get in one and drive it to North Wales, like I did with the cars in last week's Champion column, I'll still need a normal car - hybrid or not, they still have to burn things that died millions of years ago - anyway.

A normal car, I'll remind Dave Cameron next time I pass him riding his bike with ministerial Jag in tow, is really expensive to run at £1.30 a litre.

Fuelling the debate

THIS week my Champion-reading mates have all been asking me the same question, usually in the same startled tone of voice. Petrol costs how much?

Rises in both fuel duty and VAT over the past week have meant fuel prices have soared in parts of Sefton and West Lancashire to as much as £1.30 per litre for petrol and as much as £1.35 per litre for diesel, meaning the cost of filling your car up now easily beats the previous price records, set in the summer of 2008.

“When you combine the 3.5 per cent increases from the fuel duty and VAT rises this week and those when more fuel duty is added in April, it will put 7p on a litre of unleaded petrol,” said AA spokesman Luke Bodset.

“Low-income drivers, youngsters with their first job who live at home, and part-time workers having to drive to work will be hit hard. There will also be a knock-on effect on the leisure industry, hotels and restaurants because motorists will not be able to afford to go out as much.”

It's also worth remembering that if you think fuel prices are bad now, they're going to get worse, with the Coalition Government planning further increases to the cost of fuel in August. The Freight Transport Association has also said it expects hauliers to be among the worst affected, with fuel costs for them on average going up by £3,800 a year compared to 2009.

Do you think drivers are being overcharged for fuel? Or do you think it's a necessary evil in the Government's attempts to balance the books? Let us know by sending an email to david.simister@champnews.com or commenting on this blog post.