When the Motor Show comes to my home town, you just know I'm going to go all out. This is the first of a series of articles about the Melbourne Motor Show - not a large Motor Show by world standards, but this year, there are more new unveilings and locally relevant cars and concepts on show than ever before. For those of you who are international (not Australian) readers, don't worry - most of these articles will be highly relevant to you too.

So I've started with the Ford Fiesta ECOnetic - which is already sold in the UK, but will soon arrive here in down under. This is one of the most important cars of the Motor Show this year, because, crucially, the Fiesta ECOnetic aims to be the most economical car available in Australia when it launches later this year. How economical is it? Try just 3.7 Litres of diesel per 100 km, and on the environmental front, less than 100 grams of CO2 emissions per kilometre. Which, in Australia - where the hyper-economical cars of Europe are currently not available - is a revelation. Definitely beats the Toyota Prius for green-credentials, anyway, which is fine with me, because I don't like it very much.

The crucial difference between the Ford Fiesta ECOnetic and the aforesaid Prius is clearly price. The ECOnetic is set to be priced at around $20,000 - which makes helping the environment within the reach of so many people. This is the way we have to save the environment until the electric cars arrive - not wacky hybrids that are ugly, environmentally unfriendly to make, and aren't particularly efficient. This car even has a decent amount of power - 66kW and 200Nm, if you please. There seems to be no downside to the ECOnetic, because not only is it economical, it is a real car, and has real performance, and a price-tag that is well and truly in the real world. And if the Fiesta ECOnetic sells well, Ford might also bring the Focus ECOnetic and Mondeo ECOnetic to Australia, which sounds like it's exactly what the doctor ordered.

Greenies, start your engines. Turbo-diesel engines, I mean.

MELBOURNE 2009: Ford Fiesta ECOnetic Slaps Hybrids in the Face