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This is because the automotive industry did not (and still does not, IMHO) seriously prioritize improving mileage, due to the relative "cheapness" of gasoline.
It is inconceivable that, with all of the technological advances in mechanics and electronics, the automotive industry could not improve fuel efficiency by more than 4 mpg in 90+ years of research and development, if the political will existed.
On the contrary, car companies are crawling across glass and jumping through hoops of fire while bent over backwards trying to reach the 2025 EPA fuel economy targets. They're moving to smaller engines, direct-injected fuel delivery, higher compression ratios, lightweight materials, aerodynamic trickery, electric steering in place of hydraulic, auto-shutoff, capacitors to store energy to use for exterior lighting, whatever they can do to squeeze another half a mile a gallon out of their cars. But they can't make consumers buy cars they don't want to buy. They could build a car that gets 100mpg, that's the easy part. Building a car that will get 100mpg with all the crash and safety mandates while meeting the consumer's needs at a price point the consumer will pay, well that's not so easy.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HappyRider
...people look at the window sticker numbers and see 40mpg. You put that car into daily drive and you're lucky to break 20.
50+ MPG since 1976, no dinosaur / fossil fuels required.
I do like my 25gal tanks and 1250+ mile range between donut shops / free cooking oil
Europe gets the 76-80 mpg diesel Lupo
USA kicks diesels OUT (thanks to CARB). (I have SAVED ~ 64,000 gallons of fuel that I would have been pouring in my pickup that got 'retired' with the great service / towing of my 52 hp Diesel (have built 10+ houses using the econo car) Tho still have the 20 mpg CTD and 10 mpg Mack for heavy hauls.)
I expect my 1976 to bring me to the end of my driving career (40 more yrs +/-)
I did enjoy my many muscle cars or the 1970's, and still have 7 of my racing motorcycles from that era. They deliver 50 - 90 mpg. (My 1976 TL-250's deliver 120+ mpg).
I would really like to see some mileage improvement, and have tried to make a very economical MKII Diesel Scirocco, but so far, cannot break 70 mpg consistently. Need to add HHV technology.
50+ MPG since 1976, no dinosaur / fossil fuels required.
I do like my 25gal tanks and 1250+ mile range between donut shops / free cooking oil
Europe gets the 76-80 mpg diesel Lupo
USA kicks diesels OUT (thanks to CARB). (I have SAVED ~ 64,000 gallons of fuel that I would have been pouring in my pickup that got 'retired' with the great service / towing of my 52 hp Diesel (have built 10+ houses using the econo car) Tho still have the 20 mpg CTD and 10 mpg Mack for heavy hauls.)
I expect my 1976 to bring me to the end of my driving career (40 more yrs +/-)
I did enjoy my many muscle cars or the 1970's, and still have 7 of my racing motorcycles from that era. They deliver 50 - 90 mpg. (My 1976 TL-250's deliver 120+ mpg).
I would really like to see some mileage improvement, and have tried to make a very economical MKII Diesel Scirocco, but so far, cannot break 70 mpg consistently. Need to add HHV technology.
The US kicks diesels out because we don't want to choke on particulates the way Europeans seem willing to do in the name of fuel efficiency and reduced CO2 emissions.
Btw, several HIGH mpg cars were killed by the Big Three. There was a Taurus that was estimated for 62mpg. never went into production. Electric Chevy story is well known.
Bloody b....s bleed innovations in. Thye keep designs and progress on the shelves, slowly releasing chunks of it as "new redesigned". It is much more profitable to add more headlights than to actually improve the car.
Drool not over dem turboed direct injection small engines as they are destined to go bad fast and furious. Inherent issues of the design. I am ever so often jumping onto a very interesting YT channel where guy disassembles world engines and clearly explains and shows what's wrong with them. He calls them "designed by junkies" so stupidly they are made. VS old, as in 50s and 60s old engines that were actually designed to last and run.
But Chevy did make the electric car it is still offered its called the Volt
and BTW the Taurus was not a Ford project it was a unofficial project
Statistics can be interpreted in many ways, but, in the real world, cars of today get VASTLY better mileage than back then. I have had Caddies all my life, and in the 70's, and before that , I was used to 10MPG. My current Caddy gets 28 or so on the highway and 15-18 around town.
My one son has a newish Vette, and it gets 29 on the highway, and no Vette in the 70's got anywhere near that. Cars today get MUCH better gas mileage than ever before, and they have a lot more HP. When did we ever see cars with 650-700 HP as normal street driven cars in the past ?
Electric powered cars are more accurately called coal-powered cars.
Or nuclear or wind or hydro or solar, depending on where you are. At any rate, they produce no CO2 in operation (and are cleaner to use in congested environments) and the centralized source of pollution (the power plant) is much cleaner and easier to KEEP clean than a million individual point sources.
Your snide comment shows a lack of understanding of the bigger picture and an ineffective way of denigrating EVs.
As for the fuel mileage issue, Big Oil has nothing to do with the lack of high fuel mileage cars. For example, in Japan, there are kei cars getting upwards of 80 mpg out of tiny engines in tiny cars, and scooters getting over 100 mpg. In a country that has limited resources for fuel and pays handsomely to import all their fuel, getting better mileage is a national effort. If there was some magical 200 mpg carburetor, they'd have it already. No one is stopping them from making 100 mpg personal transportation. Only physics. If Big Oil was snapping up 200 mpg carburetor patents, they'd also be stopping companies from making EVs, but every manufacturer makes an EV or hybrid. And Tesla would never have got off the ground.
The car manufacturers are working and have been working feverishly to get better fuel mileage out of all their vehicles, with lighter weight materials, better aerodynamics, hybrid systems, etc. Engines today make more power per liter of displacement, run cleaner, and still get overall better fuel mileage in safer cars. That is advancement, whether you can see it or not.
Or nuclear or wind or hydro or solar, depending on where you are. At any rate, they produce no CO2 in operation (and are cleaner to use in congested environments) and the centralized source of pollution (the power plant) is much cleaner and easier to KEEP clean than a million individual point sources.
Because of the interconnection of the US Electric Grid, you can't identify your electric source.
The #1 fuel used to generate electricity is coal.
The #2 is natural gas.
Nuclear comes in at a distant 3rd. Wind is so far down the list it isn't even rounding error. Hydro is very small (~5% to 6%) and solar is about one-half of one percent.
So the best point estimate of the source of the mis-named EV Coal.
Got it? Coal. The vast majority of all electricity generation is carbon based. EVs are carbon based vehicles.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiffer E38
Your snide comment shows a lack of understanding of the bigger picture and an ineffective way of denigrating EVs.
Ah, yes, the ad-hominem attack. Personal attack because you don't like facts.
On the contrary, car companies are crawling across glass and jumping through hoops of fire while bent over backwards trying to reach the 2025 EPA fuel economy targets. They're moving to smaller engines, direct-injected fuel delivery, higher compression ratios, lightweight materials, aerodynamic trickery, electric steering in place of hydraulic, auto-shutoff, capacitors to store energy to use for exterior lighting, whatever they can do to squeeze another half a mile a gallon out of their cars. But they can't make consumers buy cars they don't want to buy. They could build a car that gets 100mpg, that's the easy part. Building a car that will get 100mpg with all the crash and safety mandates while meeting the consumer's needs at a price point the consumer will pay, well that's not so easy.
BS!!!!!!
The auto industry is fighting the 2025 CAFE standards tooth and nail, just as they have fought all CAFE standards since they were first established because they don't care about fuel efficiency. Period.
Oh, OK. So car companies aren't moving to smaller engines, direct-injected fuel delivery, higher compression ratios, lightweight materials, aerodynamic trickery, electric steering in place of hydraulic, auto-shutoff, capacitors to store energy to use for exterior lighting, etc. to improve fuel economy. They're doing all these things because.... why, it's fun? To see if consumers will notice? Because God told them to? Why?
Oh, OK. So car companies aren't moving to smaller engines, direct-injected fuel delivery, higher compression ratios, lightweight materials, aerodynamic trickery, electric steering in place of hydraulic, auto-shutoff, capacitors to store energy to use for exterior lighting, etc. to improve fuel economy. They're doing all these things because.... why, it's fun? To see if consumers will notice? Because God told them to? Why?
Because they have to do so, in order to meet the mandated CAFE standards.
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