Tools to help you find a ‘greener’ vehicle

We can all play our part when it comes to climate change.

By choosing a ‘greener’ vehicle you can reduce your impact on the environment and save on fuel.

The Australian Government Green Vehicle Guide (GVG) website provides consumers with information on just how ‘green’ a vehicle is.

The website has user-friendly tools to search and compare the environmental performance and fuel consumption of new light vehicles (up to 3.5 tonnes gross vehicle mass) sold in Australia since 2004. You can do a comparison of up to three vehicles at a time.

It provides data on fuel consumption, noise and air pollution and information on battery electric vehicles.

Although electric vehicles (EVs) are zero emissions when it comes to running, there are still other factors, such as production emissions and how the electricity is produced to recharge them. Test results for energy consumption and range are listed in the GVG.

The site provides information on a vehicle’s air pollution standard to help you compare a vehicle's contribution to urban air pollution and associated effects on the environment and human health.

The website has information on the fuel consumption label that is required to be displayed on all new light vehicles sold in Australia.

The label indicates the vehicle’s fuel consumption in litres of fuel per 100km (L/100km) and its emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) in grams per kilometre (g/km).

For an EV the energy consumption label shows the vehicle’s energy consumption in watt hours/km, expected range when fully charged and for a hybrid vehicle, the fuel consumption in litres/100km and CO2 emissions in g/km based on a standard test.

Other useful tools are their online annual fuel cost and CO2 emissions calculators.