Crossing over to greener driving

MANILA, Philippines - Helping save the planet has always been a cause close to my heart, and hence I have always found relative ‘earth friendliness’ to be a fascinating aspect of every new vehicle in the market. To other less green-oriented individuals, this may simply translate as reduced cost, in the form of fuel savings. Whichever way you look at it, there is good value in choosing to make amends with Mother Nature.

Now, the Peugeot 3008 is quite an interesting fellow—it’is a vehicle that marries the agreeable characteristics of an SUV, MPV, and hatchback into one avant garde crossover that puts a huge premium on earth-friendliness. After all, it exploits a 1.6L High-Pressure Direct-Injection (HDi) engine fitted with a technologically advanced diesel particulate filter that practically incinerates all the particles that get trapped in the exhaust system (and thereby prevents them from becoming airborne pollutants). Furthermore, the 3008’s materials are up to 90 percent recyclable – making it truly one of the green-streaked vehicles out in the market today.

It was then only but natural for Peugeot to showcase their 3008’s fuel efficiency by conducting the Eco Fun Run that Uly and I participated in. Like my partner described, we did not go to any extreme lengths to register laudable fuel consumption figures, and yet those were still exactly what we got. With a little female light-footed touch, (yes, I drove the latter half of the way), and despite occasionally getting stuck behind slow trucks carrying pigs on the narrow part of the highway, our team registered an impressive 27.7km’s per liter of fuel from Batangas’ Star Tollway to Acacia Hotel in Alabang, and continued on to become the winners of the Best Fuel Mileage title for that particular segment of the drive. Uly and I also discussed that our northbound  segment reflected a good improvement from our initial southbound segment rating, maybe also partly because of the fact that the 3008 actually ‘learns’ from your driving technique, and eventually adapts to complement your own (eco) driving style. 

The overall Eco Run winners though, were Brian Afuang of Manila Times and Jenny Bleza of Sunshine TV who averaged an amazing 26.9 kms per liter of fuel in the entire Alabang-Batangas-Alabang drive. The 2nd and 3rd placers registered 26.3km/L and 25.7km/L respectively—still within very close range of the winning figure.

“We have always been confident about our vehicles and their fuel-saving capabilities,” pointed out EDI Marketing and Communications Director, Dong Magsajo. “The Peugeot 3008, in particular, has given us good mileage numbers since we brought the units in. Even heavy-footed drivers can drive up to 14 km/L in mixed city and highway driving while using the 3008—on diesel fuel at that,” he proudly explained.

The Peugeot Fuel Economy Fun Run was indeed an enjoyable way to benchmark the 3008’s fuel frugality in real driving conditions, and was made possible through the support of Total Philippines, the Manila Toll Expressway Systems Inc., Sofitel, and Acacia Hotel.