By going green on gas I’m not referring to some form of methane or hydrogen powered vehicle but using regular gasoline you pump at the gas station.

Let’s be clear about what it means to go green; you may look for a hybrid or an electric car but then again, manufacturing technology and design is producing vehicles which run on gasoline and yet still produce less pollution in 2,000 miles than your petrol lawn mower produces in an hour of puttering around the garden.

Partial Zero Emissions Vehicles (PZEV for short) have come a long way in a very short period of time; so fast has the development been that the more cynical observers have pointed to their development and commercial offering as evidence that the car manufacturers and petrol companies have been holding back on PZEV’s because they impact on the profitability of the parent companies involved.

No matter what your viewpoint, PZEV’s are exceptionally green machines.

A Ford Focu PZEV will produce lower level of hydrocarbon emissions in a three hour drive than if you cooked up a burger on the grill.  In fact, some PZEV’s are producing emissions which are cleaner than the air in our cities.

So where is the catch?

Well for a start the government is involved in where PZEV’s can be sold; in a twisted irony that only government can produce, PZEV’s cannot be sold outside of “Special Zones” and if they are dealers face a civil penalty of up to $27,500.  The “Special Zones” are essentially California, New York and six other northeast states – anywhere else and you can’t buy them!

Volvo had to issue a note and standing instruction to dealers selling the S40 and V50 PZEV’s that they were only for sale in the Special Zones.

So here we have highly efficient, regular gas powered vehicles and no-one can sell them across the vast majority of the country!