2009 Global Green Challenge
October 20, 2009 by Alborz Fallah
For the first time ever, there is now a proper event whereby manufacturers can compete alongside each other equally to prove which one has the the most fuel efficient car. The Darwin to Adelaide challenge, better know as the Global Green Challenge is set to commence this Saturday (October 24).
Previous years have seen the event take place but only include the World Solar Challenge which is essentially limiting the category to solar vehicles only. This year however will see the introduction of a new class to allow production and prototype eco friendly vehicles that are on their way (or already available) in showrooms.
The 17 cars involved will start from NT’s Parliament House in Darwin this Saturday and finish in Adelaide the Saturday after. The cars involved are powered by a wide variety of fuel saving technology.
At the very top, Internode ISP founder Simon Hackett (together with Kym Cleggett) will be leading the challenge in his all-electric Tesla sports car meanwhile on the otherside of the scale TopGear Australia magazine has entered a Honda ‘postie bike’ running on alcohol fuel.
Manufacturers that have contributed more than one car include: Ford, Kia, Hyundai, and BMW Mini. Additionally Holden, Skoda, and Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) have single car entries. Deep Green Research has decided to enter an all-electric Honda Civic. Students from Annesley College in Adelaide will also be involved in a modified Holden Viva.
BMW & Mini will enter three vehicles driven by Le Mans winner Vern Schuppan, ABC motoring commentator Will Hagon, and motoring writer Bob Jennings together with V8 Touring Car racer Chris Smerdon, Andy Ford, Jaedene Hudson, and BMW’s own Toni Andreevski.
Ford’s Fiesta Econetic will be driven by Motoring writer Peter McKay and Carolyn Barry. Interestingly the blue oval has also entered a Falcon XR6T driven by motoring writer Damien Smy and Russel Christophers.
Suzuki has entered its tiny Alto which will be piloted by Karla Pincott and Feann Torr.
Skoda will put Petra Beneda and Jenny Wu in a Superb, Holden’s Sportwagon 3.0 SIDI will be competing with Andrea Matthews, motoring writer Scott Heyward, and Simon Cassin behind the wheel.
On the Korean side, Kia will enter two new Sorento models piloted by rally drivers Brendan Reeves and Glen Raymond, Geoff Forshaw and Anthony Caldwell. Sister company Hyundai has entered two Sante Fe models driven by rally champion Ed Ordynski together with Motoring Editor Keith Didham. CarAdvice’s editor John Cadogan and Chris Riley are competing in the second Santa Fe.
Holden Special Vehicles has decided what better car to enter the Global Green Challenge in than a Maloo Ute.
The idea is to challenge the vehicles involved to produce the best results in comparison to their fuel/energy consumption and emissions listed in the Australian Design Regulation figures. It’s not particularly a race, more so a challenge to see which car company really can deliver the fuel economy it says it can.
Winners will be selected based on the greatest percentage improvement of the official government figures published in the Green Car Guide. As such, the challenge will also include two ‘urban’ cycles, one in Darwin and one in Adelaide. The main event is a 3,000 kilometre journey from Darwin to Adelaide.
The week long challenge itinerary is as follows:
- Darwin – Start Saturday October 24
- Katherine – Overnight Saturday October 24
- Tennant Creek – Overnight Sunday October 25
- Alice Springs – Overnight Monday October 26
- Cooper Pedy – Overnight Tuesday October 27
- Port Augusta – Overnight Wednesday October 28
- Adelaide – Overnight Thursday October 29
- Adelaide – Urban cycle Friday October 30
- Adelaide – Global Green Challenge Awards Ceremony Saturday October 31 (Adelaide Convention Centre 6.30pm – invitation only)
Of course the first thing we noticed was Toyota’s name missing from the list. We asked Toyota Australia why the company had not entered the Global Green Challenge.
“The main reason was timing. Unfortunately our financial year is in line with Japan’s, that is April to March. We were approached by the organisers after we had committed our budget for Hybrid to other marketing activities, we couldn’t justify diverting funds from these activities to the Global Green Challenge.” Toyota Public Relations manager Mike Breen told CarAdvice.
We’d like to know which manufacturer you believe will perform the best in this year’s Global Green Challenge.
Print it: 
I’d be interested to see how the xr6t goes
I hope it spanks the SIDI commodore!
Actually by extending the eligable vehicles list I reckon the challenge has now become relevant to all. The Solar Challenge was good for some but never raised more than a passing interest from the majority. It will be interesting to see how real vehicles actually go. I reckon this could also give way to a new style of boredom breaker for young people. Instead of doing burnouts, some of the younger ones will get caught up in the hype and see how far they can get in their own cars by hypermiling. Because that requires slow and steady that would only be a good thing…
Good to see the Motoring Editors get behind it. CA Publish the hell out of this over the week and get it out in the general population……
‘…some of the younger ones will get caught up in the hype and see how far they can get in their own cars by hypermiling’….
and you live on Fantasy Island.
During the Fuel Crisis of the eighties it used to happen (plus we also got a whole $75.00 take home as First year apprentices :-( )
Safety First, I agree with most of your views regarding this challenge BUT i wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for hoons to swap their favourite pass times for HYPERMILING……LOL
I will also be interested to see how the hype about the new Holden engines compare to the Falcons 4.0 straight 6 coz another reviewer did 1000 K’s around Mount panorama and the Commodore used a fair bit more fuel than the G6 Falcon!!!
Young hypermilers isn’t as far-fetched as some may think. I’m a 17 year old P-plater armed with a 1.4 Petrol Fiat Punto and i happily identify as a hypermiler.
I have reduced rolling resistance tires on my Fiat, i drive slow and steady with the ultimate goal of saving money. As fuel prices go up; younger people (mostly males) are soon going to realise that impressing the chicks with burnouts etc is becoming costly and un-cool. So i think that naturally in order to run their cars, younger people are going to have to start adopting more economical driving styles; even if it is subconsciously.
I drive a subaru AWD. lots of stuff causing friction including gearbox, hi-lo transfer case thingy, centre diff, front diff and rear diff.
I’m probably not a hypermiler but I do try to follow best practice in urban traffic. dont leave heavy stuff in the boot, only infrequent use of air-con, avoid unnecessary braking/accelerating, look ahead to avoid unnecessary stops, keep constant speed, shift up where possible and accelerate gently (but not so slow that you annoy others behind you!!)
It may sound a bit boring but Im getting older and find that I dont need to plant the right foot like I used to – as much ;)
I find that simple stuff like that does help a tank of fuel last a bit longer. I think premium also gives you a little bit more range but I cant really prove that yet…
Fuel economy gains with premium will depend on your engine and driving environment.
1) The Subie does have an engine that will take advantage of the premium stuff = tick there
2) If you spend large amounts of you driving sitting idling in traffic then premium wont help. Country touring will give you the biggest gains.
Also some economy tips from experience:
- avoid Shell fuel (a tank of BP fuel a full price is a better deal than Shell with a discount coupon)
- push a tank of E10 through every now and then, it cleans things out
- and the biggest one, fill up on one of the cheaper days. It won’t save you fuel but it will save you plenty of cash.
Toyota Public Relations manager Mike Breen:
“we had committed our budget for Hybrid to other marketing activities, we couldn’t justify diverting funds from these activities to the Global Green Challenge.”
Tranlsated:
“we realised that as a technology petrol/hybrid would perform badly in the mainly extra-urban environment and the negative publicity would hurt Toyota’s world wide media campaign”
Hybrid is OK in city traffic but would fail miserably on a 3000km country run.
or…
“we could have spent money making and demonstrating good product….
…instead we just made an ad so people would think we did”
Meeooowwwwwww :-) (lol) :-)
Steve,
the figures from the 2007 WSC show that the Hybrid Prius did not “fail miserably” as you put it.
From memory it was driven by two blokes carrying all their own gear using real world driving techniques and it still got figures around those of the Diesel Peugeots.
So, while it did not perform as good as some of the others, it still held up well. AND if it was driven in a very conservative measure, with one person no luggage tyres pumped up to buggery at less than 100km/h (etc, etc) then I am sure it would’ve performed even better.
How do I know this? I was there!
I have a sneaking feeling the XR6T will make the 3.0L SIDI look over rated.
I don’t doubt the 3.0 SIDI will return low to mid 9’s but i think the Falcon will do low 10’s-high 9’s :) Thats my prediction anyway.
Bucks, the XR6T will smash the SIDI commodore in this “test”. It’s all about how much you can improve on your published “combined cycle” consumption. As a performance machine the XR6T is quite thirsty in the city so this mostly country driving will see it drop way below it’s published numbers. Ditto the Maloo. It’s also the real reason that there’s no Prius.
Agreed.
How an under-powered 1.8Tonne car can be economical except when its already moving is beyond me. A gearbox can only do so much to help (same as SIDI)
I think the “real” reason there is no Prius is because it is full of hype – no substance, as mentioned by others above.
I drove a Prius from Sydney to Brisbane and returned no better than 7l/100kms. Mind you I drove normally (like I drive my Passat V6 and it returns low 8s on same trip), keeping up with the traffic, etc.
Absolutely. My XR6T gets around 8L/100kms between Newcastle and Coffs with overtaking whenever I want… using hypermiling techniques should drop that lower. If the winner if determined by the best percentage improvement over quota ADR figues the SIDI Commodore has no chance
A noticable omission in the above list is ANY vehicles from VW (excluding the Skoda Superb). I thought VW may have put in a Golf 77 TDI or even brought in some new BlueMotions. I believe this is a chance missed.
Can’t wait to see the results.
I went on the 2007 WSC and got to be a part of the Eco Challenge section… actually I was there as a guest of Greenfleet who sponsored that section in 2007.
I’m spewing I can’t be there again this year. It was a great event thru an awesome part of Australia. Gee we had some laughs… but what happens on the trip stays on the trip.
When looking at this years results make sure you look for comments on driving style. In 2007 some of the drivers went way beyond practical to obtain the figures they achieved.
Whole thing is a waste of time considering most people drive 90% urban 10% extra-urban