Green Options » miles per gallon

Gas Mileage and Oil Dependence from 1970s to Now In the Land of Plenty; What Happened?

Adam Williams — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 10:48:41 +0000

A print advertisement in the March 1976 National Geographic Magazine shows two 1976 Honda Civics, hatchbacks of somewhat putrid brown and goldish tones.

The headline of the ad says, “Highest mileage or lowest price. The 1976 Honda Civics.”

A chart in the ad says that the average sedan or hatchback with a manual 4- or 5-speed transmission (costing only $2,729) reached EPA estimates of 43 miles per gallon on the highway, 32 in the city and 36 mpg combined.

And where are we today? What has happened in 32 years of American “progress,” “advancements in technology” and “economic growth” (well, until these last several years)?

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Plug-In Hybrid Bus at Denali NP Uses Up to 70% Less Fuel

Nick Chambers — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:28:10 +0000

Enova Systems and IC Corporation have delivered a plug-in hybrid diesel electric bus to Denali National Park for use in carting visitors around the pristine wilderness.

The bus (similar to the one pictured above) has a GVWR of 27,500 pounds, carries up to 38 passengers and uses up to 70% less fuel than a similarly equipped conventional bus — so if the bus got 10 mpg with a conventional engine, it could get 30 mpg using Enova’s hybrid system.

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What’s Your Kiwi Score? Device Trains You How to Save Gas

Nick Chambers — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:18:37 +0000

The PLX Kiwi dashboard computer plugs into your car and provides real-time info on how your driving habits affect gas usage — and how to correct them for maximum fuel efficiency.

There are lots of gas saver devices out there that claim to help you increase your car’s fuel economy. Most of them are of questionable effectiveness — to put it mildly — relying on such things as magnets, mini-tornadoes, and fuel tank pills. I’ve covered some of them in a previous post about potential fuel saving scams.

The sheer number of such questionable gas saving devices makes it difficult for the average person to distinguish the effectiveness of any single one of them. It also instills a general feeling of distrust that any of them could actually work.

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Low Cost Gas Engine Innovation Doubles Fuel Economy

Nick Chambers — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:15:02 +0000

Revetec, a little known company from the Gold Coast region of Australia, may be on to something huge: they’ve created an engine that is 50% smaller, 50% lighter, has 50% lower emissions and is cheaper to manufacture than a conventional internal combustion engine of the same horsepower. Oh yeah, did I mention that it doubles the fuel economy too.

What that means is a car like the 2007 Toyota Yaris, which is rated at 40 mpg on the highway, would get 80 mpg with a Revetec engine.

This isn’t some hoax… They have a prototype which has been attached to an actual vehicle and independently tested to substantiate their claims.

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The Illusion of MPG: Is It Really A True Measure of Your Car’s Mileage?

Max Lindberg — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:09:59 +0000

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All these years, I’ve been doing the simple math of dividing the number of gallons used over a given number of miles driven, to determine how my car is doing on gas mileage.

Now come two professors from Duke University who say that may not be the accurate way to determine how efficient your car really is.