Depends on useage pattern. Most people could get by well enough using Public Transport, especially if they combine trips instead of making three or four a day. It'll take longer, generally, than using your car, but you can do 'stuff' while on PT that you can't do in the car (due to the necessity of having to keep your eyes on the road), so it might not be 'lost' time at all.

If I was in the merket for a 'new' car, I'd buy something with a body in good condition, but old enough that you don't have a central computer controlling everything from the ECU to the seat position. If you can find something in good nick pre-unleaded, I'd grab it. Then spend the next year or two converting it in your garage to pure electric. Lead-Acid (not my personal choice) can get you about 40-50km/charge before you start overloading your shock towers/brakes/etc. They'll last a shorter time than newer chemistries like LiFePO4, but they're cheap, and recyclable (and once they're not good enough for vehicular use, you can still use them as battery backup for the house). If you convert a car yourself, I'd probably go for a low-voltage conversion, as it reduces the risk of electric shock while performing any maintainence (risk of electrocution, even in an accident, is close to zero if you design the conversion properly). 72V seems a good compromise between 'workability' and safety.

In the meantime, look for another car in good overall condition, that gets high mileage. Use that as the daily driver until the EV is on the road and the bugs are worked out. If you can find a car that comes in both Diesel and Petrol flavours, that's a good choice (gives you options later on wrt converting to BioDiesel or CNG). If it comes with a LPG tank, use that for now.

The average car in Australia does around 50kms/day. That's achievable on both CNG and Lead-Acid. Yes, there are those who drive two hours to work, but they either have PT as an option for part of the journey, or are in the minority who have no PT access (they'll end up using LPG, BioDiesel, CTL-Diesel, or giving up their cars altogether, imo).

But if you can avoid buying a car at all, do so. You'll save a lot of money by forgoing the 'convienience'.

FWIW, I think the 100km each-way daily commute is dead. It's just a matter of waiting for someone to pronounce it.

(get V6, not the 4 cylinder as converting will reduce x% power)

In a time of scarcity/sky-high prices, 'power' isn't going to be the #1 concern, I don't think. Simple mobility will be.

KN
I am wrestling with exactly the same problem myself. If I could buy a small low cost PEV right now I would. Unfortunately, I don't think they will be on the market for a year or more and when they are available are likely to be way more expensive than they are trully worth.

A couple of point with respect to your considerations:
- LPG is a by-product of normal oil refining. If we have restrictions to oil supply they will likely effect LPG as well.
- Biodiesel production in Australia is virtually non existant. Again, if we have any interuption to supply it will have no effect on availability to the general public. It may be a long term solution but will take at least 20 years to come into effect.
- There are some conversions to CNG happening but these are being undertaken on a very small scale. I believe a company in melbourne is doing some. As far as I know there are no CNG vehicles available on the market even though the retail cost of CNG is equivalent to around $0.80 per litre.
- You can get conversion kits for the Prius that equip it as a PHEV. I think they start at over $2000.

Much will depend on your use rate and distances you need to travel. I hope the above helps.

Hi KNSChell,

I think Bellistner is right in that you really ahve to look at your usage patterns and try to modify them first, before looking at alternative fuels/engine types etc. I went through this exercise myself in 2006 when I had to move my growing family from an inner city property back to a suburban home a little bit futher out. I live in a regioanl city so "further out" meant moving 2.5 km further away from the city centre. We percieved this however as being just far enough out, that my wife and I would require a car each, as my job as a sales rep meant I lived in the car all day long and she would be stranded in the burb. I looked at diesels, LPG, Prius but finally settled on an 18 month old Commodore, 30,000 Km on it and cost just $18,500. The capital cost of buying any other option meant that I would either have to own the thing for 20 years to save enough on fuel costs to justify it. In the end, I just didn't see happy motoring lasting that long and didn't sse the point of owning an expensive dinosaur. I like my dinosaurs cheap.

The other thing I did with the money we saved on the purchase of the car was to equip the whole family with bicycles, including a tag-along bike for my six year old and a Wee-ride seat for our baby. I have since built a cargo trailer as well and we can have some really pleasant family outings without having to get the car out. Trips to the shop are now doen with the bike and trailer and we bulk purchase our staples like dog food, tinned fruit, bread mix, rice ect to save on car trips, not to mention packaging.

I have since left my car dependent job and now ride the bike 15 mins into my new office, which is not even enough to break into a decent sweat. My wife has also modified her outings to the point where our petrol budget is about $20 week. The Commodore now sits in the garage and gets taken out only when the whole family needs to go somewhere together. The effciency in passenger kilometres per litre is really quite good when the car is loaded to capacity, but lousy when it is just driver and car.

We could probably get by with one car again, but it is still cheap enough to register and insure them for the convenince of having them available. That only makes economic sense if we severely and voluntarily restrict their usage. Because we have modifed our usage so much we now have more choice about what we drive because the fuel cost is no longer a significant factor in the overall cost of owning it. Our big family car is now used mostly for longer trips which for us is no more than 300ks (600 round trip). Our family holidays are mostly camping trips to the mountains or the along the river so a 4WD may be the most appropriate family vehicle to buy if or when we ever buy another vehicle. It won't matter what the car runs on from a cost point of view as we will use it so infrequently that the capital cost will represent the biggest decision.

Everyones circumstances are different, but before you go car shopping it is most important that you do whatever you have to to reduce your overall reliance on a car in the first place. If the type of work you do may be vulnerable to fuel price spikes or shortages, you may want to look at fixing that first. Then check all you other habits and work on them. Your best car to own may be the one you already own. The cost to change over your car to a a more fuel efficnet model may negate any savings you might make. A lot of cars get changed over for vanity reasons too these days and there are plenty of so called "greenie" Prius owners who would use way more petrol than than a gas guzzeler owner like me who drives a whole lot less. Do the research and let us know what you discover.

At some stage I'll be looking to buy my next car, and as someone who's been Peak Oil aware for sometime, I believe the price of petrol will go (further) significantly higher in x years time, but don't believe our entire nation will collapse into a mad max scenario.
So what sort of cars should I as an individual be "investing" in?

In my opinion, a regular hybrid, with an upgradable electrical component. I think a Prius, plus a plug in conversion kit fit the bill. At current battery, and fuel prices the conversion is uneconomic, but as batteries should get better, and fuel more expensive a crossover point might be reached. Of course even the Prius plus major battery upgrade would not be a true plugin, even fully charged, you are likely to use the ICE for acceleration and hill climbing. But, I suspect the milage with a precharged battery would be well over a hundred US mpg.

Of course the other option, modifying your lifestyle to reduce dependence on cars is also a good one. You might be able to pursue both approaches in parallel.