A push towards the use of more hybrid cars and environmentally friendly vehicles is sweeping many countries, including Australia. With the signing of the Kyoto treaty Australia has committed to reducing the amount of greenhouse gases being released in the atmosphere. There is now encouragement towards the reduced use of the traditional fossil fuels currently used to power cars.

There are many options if you want an environmentally-friendly vehicle. Many environmentally friendly cars are compact and easy to drive, but their power source is different. This means you need to consider whether you want to drive a different type of car to what you are used to.

A diesel car is one alternative. Using diesel, a car can travel a lot further on a tank of fuel. Diesel is not much more expensive than regular petrol. It’s one of the most popular choices in Australia. Therefore there are more diesel powered cars in the marketplace available for purchase. All the major Australian (eg Holden and Ford), Asian (Kia, Toyota, Mazda) and European (eg Citroen, Mercedes, BMW) now produce and sell diesel powered cars in a variety of models.

Hybrid vehicles are another choice. Hybrid cars use both petrol and electricity and are also known as petro-electric or electric hybrid cars. These cars emit much lower pollution and give you the choice to switch from electricity to petrol as required. Toyota has been leading the way in hybrid vehicle technology with the hybrid Prius and now the hybrid Camry models. The Honda Civic hybrid is another alternative from a major manufacturer. Hybrid cars use less petrol and emit much less pollution and greenhouse gases.

Generally, there are two types of hybrid vehicles – mild hybrid and full hybrid. Mild hybrid vehicles still use the petrol engine. However, when there are situations that may need extra power, then the electric engine switches on to assist. The full hybrid car can have both the petrol engine and the electric motor work independently. In this set up, the electric motor can work without being dependent on the petrol engine, but when more power is required the petrol motor will kick in.

Using “green cars” such as these not only help with the environment and ease your conscience, but they also are cheaper to run over the longer term of ownership. Because the petrol engine of a hybrid car is not used constantly it can last longer than the engine in a conventional vehicle. A diesel engine also tends to last longer than a similarly sized petrol engine as it revs much more slowly for the same power output.

In this time of global awareness, environmentally friendly cars can sometimes seem like a small change when looking at the entire effects on the globe. However, every person counts and all these efforts can certainly help reduce the dangerous pollution in our air therefore effectively improving the health of everyone.

To get the best priced hybrid vehicle you should check as many online car sales websites as you can, then once you have decided on a particular hybrid car model you can cross reference the sites for the best price on the hybrid car that most suits your requirements.