June 7, 2007

Gas Guzzling in 2007
Improvements in auto technology have produced cars that pollute less, but the more efficient cars are not yet sold in the U.S.

By David Maxwell Fine

Here in Ohio gasoline prices have been between $3 and $3.50 per gallon for the past few weeks (the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows that the price of gasoline crossed over the $3 mark the week of May 7th - it was as low as $2.19 in February ). Toledo is a sprawling town and one can easily find oneself driving 10 to 20 miles to go out for entertainment or to run errands. My 1999 Honda Accord EX will drive about 22 miles per gallon in the city, which is pretty meager gas mileage when you drive about 20 to 40 miles each day and gas costs more than $3 per gallon - especially if you're on a tight budget.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency's website Fueleconomy.gov, the 1985 Honda Accord, which wasn't nearly as luxurious as the newer models, had a slightly higher miles-per-gallon ratio of 24 miles per gallon. The 2007 Honda Accord 5-speed manual transmission can drive 26 miles on a gallon of gasoline, and the 2007 Hybrid Accord also only can drive 27 miles on a gallon of gasoline.

Thus, not much progress on fuel economy in the past 20 years in the standard sized car market. At least, not in the United States. For better fuel economy, look to the auto market outside the U.S., like Europe, and you'll see many compact car models built by all the major companies which get nearly double or triple the gas mileage of most American cars.

Even the tiny Chevrolet Aveo 5, which you might think today in 2007 might get at least 60 miles to the gallon, is rated to drive 33 miles per gallon on the highway. It is powered by a 1.6 liter engine.

But General Motors does offer a 1.2-litre version - in Europe, where it's called the Kalos. The Kalos will travel an average of 44 miles per gallon, and 54 miles on the highway.

Per capita gasoline consumption in the UK and Europe averaged 73 gallons per person in 2003, while American drivers used the equivalent of 432 gallons per person (from World Resources Institute's Earthtrends database). Some of that huge difference has to do with American suburban sprawl and fewer people using mass transit, but it likely also has to do with cheaper gasoline prices in America where people drive more big cars and trucks that guzzle more gas.

Other countries have many fuel-efficient car options. The Chevrolet Matiz, made by General Motors' European Division, which runs on a very small 0.8-litre engine, and has a top speed of only 90 miles per hour, gets average fuel economy of 54 miles per gallon (they claim 67 miles per gallon on the highway).

The Ford Ka, sold in England, is offered in a 1.3-litre version and according to Ford documents, has a fuel economy of 47 miles per gallon.

Many other automakers offer small-engine versions for the European market, like Fiat's Grande Punto, Volkswagen's Polo, the Honda Jazz, Toyota's Aygo and Yaris, or the Peugeot 107, which get 50 to 60 miles per gallon. Even Mercedes-Benz builds a small A-series which averages 40 miles per gallon. Several of the more efficient cars run on diesel fuel, but diesel combustion emits more nitrogen oxides than gasoline, a far worse greenhouse pollutant than CO2 (though companies are working on cleaner diesel technologies).

These small cars are all very stylish and would likely sell here in the U.S. They are ideal for the suburban sprawl driving that is characteristic of America, and with gasoline prices at $3 per gallon, could get many Americans twice as far per gallon of gasoline. The average person drives about 11,000 miles per year.

Driving a car that gets 20 mpg at $3 per gallon, a person would spend $1650 in gasoline annually. Driving a car that averages 45 mpg, that's only $733 spent on gasoline annually, a savings of about $900. Plus, a reduction of CO2 and other emissions by half.

However, small cars with tiny engines will not completely solve our gasoline-guzzling and carbon dioxide emissions problems: many people want big cars or trucks with big engines that accelerate fast. Can engineers find a way to make sports cars and sedans, big SUVs and trucks, go further on a gallon of gasoline?

According to a year 2000 report by the US Department of Energy, one projection of benefits to fuel economy by implementing various technological advancements hypothesized that at most, by reducing auto body weight by using special plastics and aluminum, using turbocharged diesel (TDI) engines, and energy recovery and storage technology (like a Hybrid), the vehicle could achieve a fuel economy of about 75 miles per gallon.

Mercedes-Benz is currently selling cars that employ some of these technologies, such as the turbo diesel engines, and Toyota offers the hybrid Prius, which can travel 48 miles in the city on a gallon of gas, more than double the efficiency of my Honda Accord. (The Honda Civic Hybrid gets 40 mpg in the city). The Toyota Prius actually gets better mileage in the city than on the highway, thanks to its hybrid energy-recovery technologies.

Though not all hybrids are super fuel-efficient. Carmakers are adding hybrid technology to some powerful luxury sedans, like the Lexus GS Hybrid, which has a 3.5-litre engine and accelerates from 0 to 60 in 5.2 seconds. It only travels about 20 miles per gallon of gasoline.

Meanwhile, the most popular cars in 2006 (in the U.S.) were pick-up trucks like the Ford F150 and the Chevy Silverado, and medium-sized sedans, like the Toyota Camry, according to an article in Forbes magazine.

The federal government's CAFÉ (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standard for passenger cars is 27.5 miles per gallon and 22.2 mpg for light trucks as of 2007. Those numbers are a rough average fuel economy of all passenger vehicles in the U.S. combined. There are just over 200 million passenger cars, trucks, and motorcycles in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Would selling the smaller, more fuel-efficient international car models in America cause a real reduction in gasoline consumption and CO2 emissions? If we began selling them today, maybe 5 years down the road, if they were popular and gasoline prices held at around $3 per gallon, we might add 500,000 efficient cars to the fleet. If gasoline prices increased to $4 per gallon (Gasoline prices are as high as $7 per gallon in Europe) , and consumers turned to more efficient vehicles, and more efficient large hybrid vehicles, like popular family vans, came to market, in 5 to 10 years, we could see average fuel economy passing 30 mpg.

It would be small progress, really. The benefits to the environment and saving energy, while still significant, are less than the benefits to the individual driver's pocketbook.

At any rate, there seems to be an upward limit to fuel economy of about 70 miles per gallon due to the weight of the vehicle and air and road resistance, and that would be for a small hybrid vehicle. Unless hybrid energy-recovery technologies were to improve to provide greater efficiency in the coming years.

Though while car fuel economy has changed little in the past 20 years, car exhaust is much cleaner today, with most companies selling what are called ULEV, SULEV, and PZEV models - Ultra Low Emissions Vehicles, vehicles that emit far fewer nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, particulates, and other pollutants which cause smog and also contribute to global climate change.

If we are thinking about reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions we must consider that the nearly 8 million big shipping trucks on the roads consume 1 gallon of diesel fuel just for every 6 miles traveled (though the US EPA has made rules to make truck and bus diesel emissions 90 percent cleaner by this year). Airplanes, also, used 19 billion gallons of fuel in 2006, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

While we could certainly improve personal transportation fuel efficiency in the next decade by bringing the smaller, more efficient cars to the U.S. market and selling more hybrid vehicles, to tackle the general problem of CO2 emissions and powering large vehicles, it seems that we will have to turn to non-polluting fuels, different powering technologies, or rechargeable batteries and fuel cells that could be run with renewable non-polluting fuels. 20 years ago the Honda Accord got the same gas mileage it does today, running on the same fuel. What will the state of car fuel efficiency be in 2027?

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has sponsored and 17 other senators have co-sponsored senate bill S. 357 the "Ten-in-Ten Fuel Economy Act" which would raise CAFE standards for all new U.S. sedans, light trucks and SUVs from 25 miles per gallon to 35 mpg by model year 2019. It is possible that with increasing pressure from growing evidence of climate change and greater political interest in mitigating carbon dioxide emissions, such a change could pass Congress. If so, we might see those efficient European car models coming to the U.S.