'Greener' car not green enough for Fitzsimons

By KEVIN TAYLOR and MATHEW DEARNALEY

New hybrid petrol-electric cars their makers say are greener don't impress the Green Party's Jeanette Fitzsimons enough to ditch her battered old Mitsubishi Mirage.

She'd rather stick with her cream-coloured 1986 Mirage - which has now done 230,000km.

The Greens co-leader outlined her thoughts after being asked by a party member about Toyota's new Prius petrol-electric hybrid car during the party's annual conference at the weekend.

Ms Fitzsimons says she will stick with her 1300cc Mirage because the Prius and a Honda Civic hybrid car also on the market take the efficiency gains from the technology to boost the car's performance rather than save fuel.

The Prius, launched in NZ last year, is being marketed as one of the world's cleanest and greenest cars and now there's a three-month waiting list.

Recent oil price rises have also spurred interest in such vehicles. The hybrid system uses spare power from the engine and the rolling motion of the car itself to generate supplementary electricity which can then either be used immediately or stored.

Ms Fitzsimons says hybrid petrol-electric cars are a good initiative and are not like full electric cars which need power from the grid - which usually means burning coal.

But while she would "love" to eventually buy a hybrid car, she intends waiting for a smaller model. Her Mirage has lasted because it has been run on CNG for much of its life, although CNG is no longer available. Despite being "a wee bit shabby", it has continued to be efficient because she has kept it well-tuned.

* Firefighters are now being trained how to recognise hybrid electric-petrol cars, so they do not electrocute themselves by rushing to disconnect the batteries in emergencies.

The Fire Service's hazardous substances adviser, Tony Haggerty, says the usual practice of disconnecting the batteries could prove lethal on hybrid vehicles with 300-volt direct-current power packs.

Their electricity charges took about five minutes to dissipate, so firefighters were being taught to treat them with caution.