The new Peugeot 308, winner of the recent European Car of the Year award and Fuel Watchdog best MPG car 2014*, has taken fuel economy to new highs with a record breaking 99.1mpg and 1124.7 miles on a full tank of fuel (petrol).

Witnessed by the authoritative UTAC (Union Technique de l'Automobile, Motocycle et Cycle), the Peugeot 308 with 1.2-litre, 130bhp turbo petrol engine and manual six-speed gearbox achieved the milestone at the Almeria circuit in Spain, and sets the record for a standard production model with petrol engine.

It's great to see the strides manufacturers are taking to improve fuel economy isn't just reserved for diesel or hybrid/electric vehicles. Ultra high efficiency turbo petrol engines are closing the gap on their diesel counterparts, and with lower fuel prices, lower purchase prices and generally lower noxious exhaust fumes, the petrol engine could be far from dead for those tending to want to use their car for shorter journeys.

Technological advances over the past couple of decades have helped improve diesel cars' fuel economy by 27%, according to a report by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), comment Bosch UK.

Innovations such as the Bosch Common-Rail System which inject fuel into the engine under high pressure and Start Stop systems which now appear in 50% of all new cars manufactured have significantly helped towards the improvements, which have all contributed to a £360 per year fuel cost saving compared to a decade ago.

Emerging technologies which power the new generation of diesel hybrids will help Bosch deliver even greater savings in the future, with further improvements in fuel consumption of 40% predicted between now and 2020.

Electric and Hybrid vehicles may gain all the attention with their ability to delivery a green future, but it will be the everyday low-cost technologies such as Start/Stop, available in most new mid-sized cars today, which will be set to make the biggest difference to the UK's collective fuel consumption and emissions levels going forward.

We look forward to seeing how the diesel hybrid technology evolves in the coming years, and the effect adoption rates have on it's cost.

MP Rob Flello, together with Quentin Wilson and Fair Fuel UK, have today (12th March) delivered a petition to 10 Downing Street demanding a 3p per litre cut in fuel duty in the forthcoming Budget.

Fuel Duty makes up 60% of the cost of fuel at the pumps, and the Fair Fuel UK campaign have consistently called for a decrease in duty paid by the UK's drivers, which would help stimulate the economy by giving consumers more disposable income and would have a net effect of helping GDP grow by up to 0.2%.

Flello comments: ‘The Chancellor needs to put forward a Budget which will help individuals and businesses. A cut in fuel duty would bring welcome relief to many who are struggling to with rising energy costs.’

As we get closer to Budget day, we're not surprised to see motoring organisations lobbying the government to help reduce fuel duty which should of course help reduce fuel costs at the pumps. Any reduction would be a popular measure, with the opposite being a sure fire vote loser, so the government are in a potentially tricky position and it will need a fair amount of consideration to try and keep all groups happy.

More transparency over how much of the Road Tax and Fuel Duty revenues were actually spent on Britain's crumbling road network would surely help the UK public understand better the reasoning behind these taxes. Or perhaps it could enrage drivers and motoring organisations even more....

Audi's new traffic light recognition technology could help smooth the progress of driving through towns and cities - helping to improve fuel efficiency and ultimately cut CO2 emissions.

The system harnesses the power of the Audi's in-car internet and uses Audi connect to establish a link with the town or city's central traffic light computer. The traffic light change sequences are then quickly downloaded into the vehicle and on the approach to the lights a set of indicators in the central instrument cluster in the dashboard shows the driver the speed to select in order to pass through the light during a green phase.

If the driver is waiting at a red light, the system will automatically calculate and display the time remaining until the next green light is due to appear and also communicates with the vehicle's start-stop system to ensure the engine is switched back on a few seconds before the lights change.

As a result of the new technology, Audi calculates that it could improve C02 emissions by 15%, and save millions of litres of fuel for motorists around the world.

The new technology is now fully functional and ready to be put into production across the Audi range after extensive testing in cities around the world, subject to government legislation and compatibility with towns and city's traffic light management systems.

An integrated traffic light communication system is the logical next step in how vehicles can use their on-board wifi/internet connection to help improve the driving experience and save fuel, following on from Satellite Navigation systems which already advise on traffic congestion and offer alternative routes, which also save time and fuel and have been around for some years now.

However, the actual roll-out of this technology isn't quite as straightforward, with legislation being the first obstacle before a standardised system of computer transmitters from the lights themselves will have to be agreed upon and installed into the millions and millions of traffic lights located around the world. 

Charging cars in the future could be as simple as parking your car, if a prediction made by Toyota comes to fruition.

A new wireless battery charging system has been developed by the manufacturer for vehicles that use an electric powertrain, and by simply parking the vehicle in line with a coil set into the surface of the ground, electricity is transmitted using magnetic resonance which then charges the car.

Testing is due to start shortly, with Toyota using the results to develop the technology further and ultimately bring the system to market, providing a smarter, easier to use and kinder to the environment solution for charging vehicles in the future

Another example of a vehicle manufacturer working to make the process of charging vehicles more easy for the EV driver. Obvious difficulties such as safety, interference and user competence will need to be addressed before anything of this nature can be released into the mainstream, but this certainly looks like a useful and very user-friendly way of providing charging facilities to electric car drivers of the future.