Around three quarters of the cars on New Zealand roads are petrol powered. Most of the remainder are diesel, although recently Kiwis have started buying hybrid (a combination of petrol and electric) powered cars.

Petrol costs more than diesel and, litre for litre, petrol engines are likely to be less fuel efficient than diesel. On the other hand, petrol powered engines tend to be more peppy to drive and they operate at less intense levels than diesel engines.

Diesel engined cars tend to cost more to run and can be noisier to drive. On the other hand, diesel engined vehicles tend to be more fuel efficient than their petrol equivalents.

Diesel also costs less than petrol. However, the Government charges Road Users Charges (RUC) on diesel powered vehicles which means if you are driving small annual distances then the overall running costs are likely to work out higher. Because they operate under greater pressure, diesels do not forgive poor maintenance and can be expensive to fix if something major goes wrong.

Hybrid vehicles are basically petrol powered cars with an electric motor that kicks in when the engine is not under load. It contains large batteries which charge themselves from the petrol engine and sometimes from braking.

These days, many companies produce hybrids. Most hybrid cars sold in New Zealand are small sedans and hatchbacks, plus Lexus do an RV wagon.

Opinions differ around the long term environmental cost of hybrids, largely due to the processes around building and disposing of their batteries.

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