Richard Branson's eco car hopes run dry
Sir Richard Branson has been forced to admit that his biofuel car - a £33,000 Saab - is often run on ordinary unleaded petrol, due to a scarcity of the bioethanol fuel he had hoped to use.
Branson had bought the car as a symbolic gesture to show his commitment to finding new methods of transport that aren't reliant on C02-emitting fuels. But the nearest supplier of bio-ethanol to Virgin's Notting Hill HQ is on the other side of the M25, at a petrol station in Crowborough in East Sussex, a 100-mile roundtrip that takes over three hours.
Related: The hidden cost of Colombia's bio-fuel boom | Biofuels could create food/fuel crisis. Yay or nay?
Unlike electric cars, hybrid models like Branson's Saab (and some significantly cheaper ones such as those featured at the sexy green car show) are not currently exempt from the congestion charge. Now both Saab and Virgin are lobbying Mayor Ken Livingston to grant biofuel cars the same exemption given to electric cars, in the hope that more petrol stations will consider it worth their while stocking the fuel. However, not all greens are behind this solution to C02 emissions, as it is feared the plantation of crops for fuel could impact badly on food supply in some third world countries.
Richard Branson has recently stated that Virgin will invest £1.6 billion in renewable energy over the next 10 years.
