Average Minimum MPG of 54.5 by 2025

[Shermana]

54.5 mpg fuel economy rule finalized | Fox News


I personally believe there is indeed a conspiracy (aka Cartel agreement) to keep the average MPG down when it could be much higher.

Is this not an excellent decision? Within a little over a decade, all new cars must be built to only take about half the amount of gas. Is this not an excellent government decision? Or is it infringing on the free market in a way which somehow doesn't benefit the average consumer? I wish it were implemented in less than half that time!

 

[Reverend Rick]

It is going to make it hard on football and basketball players to actually fit in any of these cars.

Contractors who have to move equiptment and materials around or farmers who haul cattle or horses will have a hard time of it too.

I guess eventually we will all ride around in golf carts. Great fuel economy but not very safe.

 

[Gjallarhorn]

...I wish we'd just get rid of gas all together.

Viva Hydrogen!

 

[sandandfoam]

First, I had to do some searching

1US gallon = .833 Imp gallon - so that's 45mpg in old money?


If my sums are right - 45mpg doesn't sound very optimistic, I'd be hoping that whatever I'm driving at that stage is a lot more economical than that.
In US terms we're currently paying about $8/gallon and the price is expected to rise substantially in the coming months (we're paying about €1.70/litre now and €2/litre is forecast). What will we be paying by 2025?

 

[Reverend Rick]

Meh..... by 2025 I will be in a nursing home or dead and gone. Either way, I doubt I will be driving anything but an electric golf cart. More likely a motorised wheel chair.

Meanwhile, I burned 200 gallons of fuel in my boat last weekend.

 

[sandandfoam]

Meh..... by 2025 I will be in a nursing home or dead and gone. Either way, I doubt I will be driving anything but an electric golf cart. More likely a motorised wheel chair.

Meanwhile, I burned 200 gallons of fuel in my boat last weekend.

lol, I imagine you've more than another decade in you Rick.

If I could afford 200 gallons of fuel for a weekend I think I would like to burn them in a B-body charger

 

[Revoltingest]

...I wish we'd just get rid of gas all together.
Viva Hydrogen!

Hydrogen sounds great, but it has its problems too.
1) Unlike fossil fuels, which which are just a processed form of "found in the ground" energy, hydrogen must be manufactured.
2) Hydrogen functions like a battery, ie, you generate the energy by some other means, & then convert it into this storage medium, losing energy in the process.
3) Hydrogen is hard to handle & suffers big transfer losses, since it is at very high pressures & diffuses thru solid metal.
4) Fuel infrastructure would have to be completely replaced.

A much better fantasy is electric cars with ultra-capacitors.

 

[Revoltingest]

I personally believe there is indeed a conspiracy (aka Cartel agreement) to keep the average MPG down when it could be much higher.

I've worked in the auto industry, & know many others who do. There has been a continual effort to boost fuel economy for decades.
If there's a conspiracy to force us to burn thru our fossil fuels quickly, then what evidence of it is there?
Now, why so little progress?
- Fuel is cheap....that's the only thing suppliers could conspire to do. I can live with that.
- Car buyers don't care much about fuel economy. Look at car ads....they push zippy performance. Cars are faster than ever.
- Put out a car which gets far better economy, & you make compromises which buyers don't like. Look at the heavily subsidized Chevy Volt.
Production is on hiatus because of low demand.
Hmmm.....GM is owned & run by government now, so if this is part of the conspiracy, then Obama is one of the conspirators.

Is this not an excellent decision? Within a little over a decade, all new cars must be built to only take about half the amount of gas. Is this not an excellent government decision? Or is it infringing on the free market in a way which somehow doesn't benefit the average consumer? I wish it were implemented in less than half that time!

My preference is to use the free market to address the issue.....impose a high fuel tax.

 

[Reverend Richard]

54.5 mpg fuel economy rule finalized | Fox News


I personally believe there is indeed a conspiracy (aka Cartel agreement) to keep the average MPG down when it could be much higher.

Is this not an excellent decision? Within a little over a decade, all new cars must be built to only take about half the amount of gas. Is this not an excellent government decision? Or is it infringing on the free market in a way which somehow doesn't benefit the average consumer? I wish it were implemented in less than half that time!

Actually, I wish I didn't have to worry about the MPG of my car.

Americans are so in love with the automobile that very few of us have had the experience of not needing one! Earlier in my career, when I was with Hewlett-Packard, I was fortunate enough to have done some international travel. When I traveled to Europe and Asia I never rented a car. While I was there I always used public transportation - the "tube" and the train in the England and Scotland, and the subways and ferry while in Hong Kong and Singapore.

NOT needing a car to get to work was both freeing and enlightening! I could read the morning paper, read a book, or simply talk to people around me on the tube or on the train.

Not needing an automobile would mean:

1. not spending hundreds of dollar a year on automobile insurance,
2. not spending hundreds of dollars every year on taxes for auto registration
3. not spending thousands every year on gasoline
4. not spending hundreds to thousands every year on auto maintenance

Unfortunately, in the U.S. there seems to be very little public support for a nationally interconnected mass transit system, and I fear we are decades away from even considering it.

 

[Reverend Rick]

lol, I imagine you've more than another decade in you Rick.

If I could afford 200 gallons of fuel for a weekend I think I would like to burn them in a B-body charger

My Beemer gets good gas milage.

Well when I put it in 6th gear and keep my foot off the accelerator anyway.

Actually I made a smooth move last weekend, after I ran all that fuel, I filled the tanks back up. The price jumped the very next day so I am good for the next two weekends.

 

[Revoltingest]

I get up to 13 mpg with an empty trailer when I keep my speed down & avoid mountains.

 

[Reverend Rick]

I can get an extra 100 miles from a tank of fuel with my truck if I just slow down a bit.

 

[Revoltingest]

I can get an extra 100 miles from a tank of fuel with my truck if I just slow down a bit.

Not so for me......the biggest noise while driving isn't the rush of wind outside...it's the rush of gas into the injectors.
I once got about 550 miles on a tank when it was new & unloaded. Now I do well to get over 440. I drive typically below
the speed limit. I'm that guy you pass like I'm standing still.

 

[Reverend Rick]

I get about 300 miles per tank normally but can get another 100 if I work at it.

15 MPG is a good number for my truck.

 

[MysticSang'ha]

The conspiracy is from the public who want to buy big SUV / minivan / truck-hauling vehicles. It's also from the companies who know how to market to the general public as the MUST-HAVE type of transportation. AND it's from the lack of knowledge that good mileage can only be attained from smaller compact cars (it doesn't have to).

The engineering has been around for decades with getting 75-100 MPG in pickup trucks. At least that's what I remember from the last documentary I watched.

Anyway, the diesel engine is a great investment for the future, I think. A bunch of energy companies, while looking into alternative fuel sources, are trying to find efficient net transfer of energy through wind turbines for the community and biodiesel for transportation.

By 2025, I'll be 52. Travelling for business and seeing grandbabies by then. I surprised my husband by saying that the next car I want to get is a diesel pick up truck so it can use biofuel, and his jaw almost hit the floor.

 

[Revoltingest]

The engineering has been around for decades with getting 75-100 MPG in pickup trucks. At least that's what I remember from the last documentary I watched.

Documentary? Sounds more like sci fi to me.
I know a fella who gets 20 mpg in his small (1 ton) turbocharged diesel truck, but much better than that would take new technology.

Anyway, the diesel engine is a great investment for the future, I think. A bunch of energy companies, while looking into alternative fuel sources, are trying to find efficient net transfer of energy through wind turbines for the community and biodiesel for transportation.
By 2025, I'll be 52. Travelling for business and seeing grandbabies by then. I surprised my husband by saying that the next car I want to get is a diesel pick up truck so it can use biofuel, and his jaw almost hit the floor.

Watch out for high capital & maintenance costs. Unless you put on a lot of longish-trip miles, those things are more expensive to drive than gas guzzlers.

 

[idav]

Unfortunately, in the U.S. there seems to be very little public support for a nationally interconnected mass transit system, and I fear we are decades away from even considering it.

The US is so huge we use a lot of fuel. We have a public transit system here but won't go as far as my work. Public transportation would have to not be leaning on high fuel costs.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Documentary? Sounds more like sci fi to me.

If I'm thinking of the trucks the documentary mentioned, I don't remember who makes them but they do get that sort of gas mileage, but they are very small and don't seem like the truck for the person who would normally need a truck, say construction workers or farmers who need that hauling power. Personally I blame the demand for such a high amount of torque that will haul weights that not even the average contractor or farmer would be lugging around for keeping truck MPG down.

I know a fella who gets 20 mpg in his small (1 ton) turbocharged diesel truck, but much better than that would take new technology.

My dad could get just over that is his 1 ton Ram diesel, due to some computer modification he put on it. That program also unlocked so much power in the truck you could put it in four wheel drive and easily get all four tires squealing on a take off.

Watch out for high capital & maintenance costs. Unless you put on a lot of longish-trip miles, those things are more expensive to drive than gas guzzlers.

I can second that. My dad ended up selling his because it just costs too much to own. I don't remember much of what his complaints were, except I do remember the tires for it cost over $100 each.

 

[Reverend Richard]

The US is so huge we use a lot of fuel. We have a public transit system here but won't go as far as my work. Public transportation would have to not be leaning on high fuel costs.

That's a fair point. Much of the public transportation in Asia and a fair amount in Europe, rely on electric power, and not on fossil fuels.

I work for the electric power industry and I know electricity is not cheap, but it is much more easily "replaced" than are fossil fuels. And with the expansion of both solar & wind (turbine) power, along with the continued research in these technologies, the price of these technologies should slowly to decline. I doubt we will ever see a substantial decline in the price or availability of fossil fuels, especially over the next 1 to 2 decades.

 

[Mathematician]

The 1980s and 1990s witnessed a substantial increase in safety protocols for cars. I recall as a child all the periodic news updates. Research and development went into improving on the computer, power steering, etc. I'm fairly confident that within 10 years most vehicles will be hybrids. More hybrids are sold in one month nowadays than all of 1999-2002.