Coming up on May 7

Hi Jim. I was born in Goulburn, we lived about 25 minutes out. We've relatives in Canberra 🙂. There's been some Tesla electric chargers in Goulburn for a few years now.

You need to take your diesel out on the road for 20 minutes several times a week, or it will clog with residues and you'll be calling a tow truck. Doesn't matter how new it is. Happened to our neighbour a few weeks ago, his commute these days is only 2 km (1.5 miles) and that is not enough time outside for a diesel, the two truck took it away and the mechanics repaired it. He was in an Audi club or whatever that covered such incidents and provided a loaner car. We also do short commutes in our petrol car and of course it is totally reliable. An all-important factor for such a GOOD LOOKING physicist!! There I said it! Another essential is top-spec driver safety aids. Auto-collision avoidance, rear and other cameras. Our Subarus have had these since 2013 and I wouldn't consider a new car which didn't provide them Last but not least, crash protection. An environmentally unfriendly mass of steel protects you more in a side-on crash than a trendy mini or micro car ie more than zero. You already achieve a lot for the environment by not having eight children and/or by not commuting 100km to work Consider to install solar panels if you haven't already. Secret admirer from Canberra, Jim

I don't know in your town, but in The Hague, if you buy an electric car and you don't have a charger in your street or private parking with charging option, you can ask for one to be installed. Hybrid pluggable would be my option, if I really needed to buy a car, which is not the case, although my wife pushes me for it. A man without a car does not look like a man, it seems. I really like the acceleration capability of electric cars.

And how much money you have: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800921003943

I did consider electric but it's just too expensive. Also, there are very few charging places here (basically, only one where we live). I suspect this is going to change a lot in the next years though.

I was sad to lose diesel as an option in the US with VW. I gave my Bug away before living abroad, and found it's not an option on return.

Brian Oxley

I know you have probably considered electric so I just mention it here. I Do want to hear what you found out about diesel please.

It seems like biodiesel recycling is still in the 'gotta start somewhere!' phase. Hopefully soon the emissions will improve.

In doing just a little bit of online reading, vegetable oil emissions have less nitrogen oxides, but their hydrocarbon content is about the same as regular diesel, although the numbers given on websites vary a bit here. The real environmental savings here is that so many people with electric vehicles get their electricity from coal powered plants and so recycling the vegetable oil is much better option. I think the same for using recycled vegetable oil in diesel cars -- it is less bad for the environment than running petroleum diesel -- not good, just a little less bad. Another development with the recycled frying oil is that businesses have sprouted up to do the collecting and refining. This way, diesel owners no longer have to do this themselves. Too bad these businesses are currently few and far between.

I think I might've accidentally deleted my comment when I went to add another link, but I did another search and found this newer article: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-17/first-fast-charger-for-electric-vehicles-installed-on-nullarbor/100762138 BTW, the 'chips' that are being fried are 'fries'. :) I hope this technology expands internationally as it's improved.

Colleen, your reply never showed up here, but I did get it in my email so I'm sharing it because it is really cool -- this link describes the use of diesel generators, running on old frying oil, to run chargers for electric vehicles: https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2021-12-08/electric-vehicle-fast-charger-roadhouse-chip-oil-power-nullarbor/100676530

Relativity taus reactivity rutautionaly

The U.S.Navy considered running all of its ships on uranium. It turned out to be too expensive.

That depends on where one lives and why they're using a car. Otherwise, yes.

The semester is over and yet here I am not sleeping in because it takes a while to re-program the cats. Anyhow, my Dad used to say that a diesel will run on anything, even buttermilk. I suspect that biodiesel turns out to not be as environmentally friendly as the word implies. But what about recycled cooking oil? There are a subset of diesel owners who collect used frying oil from restaurants and refine it into fuel for their cars -- and then they smell like french fries driving down the road.

Diesel has improved a lot in recent years. I was reading recently that diesel buses even contaminate less than natural gas ones, amazing. But then, if you only use a car once every couple of months and you live in a city with such a service, you can use a shared cars company (ShareNow, Ubeeqo, Greenwheels, Mywheels...) or the car of a neighbor that is sharing it (SocialCar, Snappcar...) or a traditional rent a car company or even taxis. Far more convenient and cheaper than having your own car. It has been said that if you do less than 25000 km per year it is not worth having your own car (90% of the time unused parked somewhere).

I'm hoping to be able to buy a car in the next year or so; this video will be useful!