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Privacy Notice Despite their world of chauffeured cars and exclusive travel, it seems the royals still enjoy the freedom driving themselves brings. From Range Rovers to sports cars, everyone from the King to Prince William have frequently been spotted behind the wheel. We all know that driving can have a negative impact on the environment, and it seems one royal is particularly aware of this. For more than five decades, King Charles has been a vocal advocate for climate change, urging the world to become greener and more environmentally friendly. While the late Queen was often seen in a Land Rover driving herself around the Scottish Highlands or the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, the King is usually found in his classic blue 1970 Aston Martin.
The King has owned the car since 1969
(Image: Getty)
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This car, gifted to him by his mother for his 21st birthday back in 1969, is still in use today. King Charles has driven the car to many official engagements, but its fuel consumption was a concern for the eco-conscious monarch. As a passionate advocate for climate change, organic farming and global warming, Charles came up with an ingenious – and quite surprising – plan to make his beloved vehicle more eco-friendly. He transformed his car to run on bioethanol made from surplus wine and cheese in 2008. The engineers at Aston Martin found that their cars could also function on leftover English white wine blended with whey, The Telegraph reported. Despite warnings from the engineers about potential risks, Charles revealed: “The engineers at Aston said, ‘Oh, it’ll ruin the whole thing,’ I said, ‘Well I won’t drive it then,’ so they got on with it and now they admit that it runs better and is more powerful on that fuel than it is on petrol… and also, it smells delicious as you’re driving along.”
Prince William borrowed his dad’s car to drive his bride out of Buckingham Palace
(Image: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images)
The Prince and Princess of Wales even used the same vehicle to depart from Buckingham Palace for Clarence House post their wedding ceremony in 2011. The car was stylishly decorated with a replaced rear license plate stating ‘Just Wed’ and adorned with a handful of balloons. However, this wasn’t the only instance where the King aimed at enhancing Royal transportation. In 2007, reports surfaced detailing a trial of the Royal train running on vegetable oil. Regarding this experiment, Charles said: “It took me a long time to battle to get them to run it on used cooking oil. Which actually, in the end, worked quite well.” Although he acknowledged the maintenance team might contest his assessment, admitting: “They say it clogs up the engine or something.”
The adaptations to the car weren’t the King’s only brainwave
(Image: Chris Jackson/Getty Imagesfor Clarence House)
King Charles’ commitment to sustainability led him to create the Terra Carta initiative in 2020. Prince William expressed admiration for his father’s environmental efforts during the launch of his Earthshot Prize Awards. The late Queen also praised both Charles and William’s environmental work in her speech at COP26. The monarch reflected on Prince Philip’s similar legacy, stating: “It is a source of great pride to me that the leading role my husband played in encouraging people to protect our fragile planet, lives on through the work of our eldest son Charles and his eldest son William. I could not be more proud of them.”Story SavedYou can find this story in  My Bookmarks.Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.Follow OK! MagazineFacebookTwitterCommentMore OnKate MiddletonPrince PhilipPrince WilliamKing Charles IIIQueen Elizabeth II
