Business trips hit by soaring petrol prices

Demand for petrol is reported to have dropped 20 per cent over the past 12 months as record fuel prices begin to take a toll on driving habits.

According to the Daily Telegraph, figures from petrol retailers show that sales have dropped sharply in the last few weeks and demand for petrol has fallen 20 per cent in the last year.

Higher fuel prices and growing environmental awareness have also led companies to curb the number of business trips made by staff, according to Stewart Whyte, a director at commercial fleet trade association ACFO.

Speaking to BusinessGreen.com, Whyte said that a recent survey showed that business mileage had fallen by between 3 and 7 per cent in the last year.

He added that petrol sales had also been affected by the shift towards more fuel-efficient diesel vehicles.

"Some leasing companies are reporting that 70 per cent of new vehicle orders are for diesel vehicles," Whyte said. "Only five to seven years ago that was around 15 to 20 per cent."

The news comes as more signs emerged that the car industry was trying to adapt to motorists' changing habits.

Hot on the heels of General Motors' announcement that it is shutting four of its plants producing fuel-hungry sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and trucks, Nissan said this week that it was switching one shift of workers at a US plant from SUVs to a mid-sized vehicle.

And Toyota has unveiled a major environmental action plan, raising its 2010 target for cutting carbon emissions by 35 per cent on 2001 levels and revealing new details of plans for low-carbon vehicles.

The company said it would begin production of a lithium-ion battery from 2009 with the aim of launching a plug-in hybrid equipped with the device in Japan, the US and Europe by 2010.

Toyota said it was also planning to ramp up production of small all-electric vehicles and researching second-generation biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol and biomass-to-liquid fuels derived from synthesising gas produced by biomass.