The Revolve Eco-Rally

Tomorrow, the 5th of June, is World Environment Day. There are lots of amazing things going on in Oxford, which I'll write about tomorrow. But today's topic is THE REVOLVE ECO-RALLY (http://www.revolve.ws). This is a rally of eco-friendly cars (i.e. cars that run on charged electric batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, biodiesel or are petrol-electric hybrids) going from Brighton at 10.30 tomorrow morning to London. The rally is scheduled to arrive in London at 3.30. And no it doesn't take a whole 5 hours because all eco-friendly cars are crap and go at 2mph. Its 5 hours long because the rally is conveniently stopping at lots of points along the way to show off to people between Brighton and London how great the cars are. Most eco-friendly cars perform at just the same level as normal carbon-spewing ones, so they'd get to London just as quickly if it wasn't for the fact that they're stopping a few times on the way.

The Toyota Prius is the most well-known eco-friendly car and Leo DiCaprio famously owns one. Its a petrol-electric hybrid, which means that the engine uses petrol to accelerate when you start the car up, then when you brake it converts the energy and stores it in a battery so that when you next accelerate the car uses this stored energy and doesn't have to burn petrol. A very similar car available in the UK if you can't get hold of a Prius (because everyone wants one) is the Honda Civic Hybrid. (AHEM Dad I know you are in the market for a new car right now and the Civic is much cheaper than the Prius http://www.whatcar.co.uk/car-review-full.aspx?RT=746. Also check out http://www.green-car-guide.com)

My personal favourite eco-friendly car is the G-Wiz, which runs solely on an electric battery, and when I have a house of my own in which to charge it up and a space to park it outside I will definitely get one. Top speed of only 40mph though. And for it to be completely eco-friendly you need to charge it up using green electricity. More about this soon.