Today Cars No More Efficient than 1963 Models
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 04.29.08
The average car on Australian roads today is only as fuel efficient as its predecessor was back in 1963. That’s the finding of prominent transport researcher Paul Mees, of Melbourne University, who is crunching numbers for the Garnaut climate change review. Paul says that “the current rate of progress in making cars more fuel efficient is no progress at all.” In 1963 the average Australian car went 100km on 11.4 litres of petrol. (That’s 20.6 mpg) They can only manage the same efficiency more than 40 years later.
Gathering data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, he has revealed that while engine efficiency has improved, this has been countered by the addition of 'enhancements' such as air-conditioning, power steering and windows, safety and entertainment systems. The static nature of overall fuel efficiency has also been hampered by the roll out of more freeways. "If you drive at 110kmh you use more fuel than if you drive at 70kmh." From ::Sydney Morning Herald, via Ecomedia
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Biggest factor of all and not mentioned in the post is horsepower. Modern automotive engines are more than 100% more powerful than most of their predecessors from the early 1960's. (the latest GM sports car boasts 600 HP)
We could cut our power/torque/fuel consumption in half in the single act of lessening the power. At first, it would be a shock as the Weight/HP ratio dropped and caused a major reduction in acceleration; but we'd survive and so would the planet as we transitioned to lighter cars and learned to simply slow down.
Of course cars today have the same gas mileage as cars of the 60's and 70's. Cars today weigh so much more. If you compare a 2008 Corolla to a '73 Corolla, they are about the same size, have about the same passenger space, but the 2008 with the more sophisticated, more efficient engine weighs about 1000 lbs more. The half ton weight difference negates all the high tech engineering of the new car. Why do they weigh so much more? With all of the new luxury features (stereo systems, power locks and windows, etc.) and all the redundant sensors in the new cars why wouldn't they weigh more? The problem with fuel efficiency is all of the waste going into making the cars more comfortable than a home.
The gas mileage increase for not using air conditioning/heating has been disproved dozens of times. If you're leaving your window open instead of using air conditioning, you automatically cancel the benefit due to wind resistance. It's that low of an increase. Also, power windows and various other "gadgets" are powered by "extra" energy from the motor that would have been wasted anyway. Implying that your car uses the same power that it's wheels rely on means that your car would suddenly up and die if it went too fast, or all your electronics would suddenly power off. They are on a separate power system attached, but not feeding off the same line as the regular drive train.
The big adders have been safety equipment (weight), entertainment equipment (more weight), faster driving (more power), and basically no substantial increases in efficiency despite the fact that there have been numerous innovations in the field, none of them have been applied on any broad scale.
the biggest improvement that we are forgetting is todays vehicles are cleaner by a factor of 10 or better! allow the auto manufacturers to produce vehicles at that emissions level and you could get massive fuel economy increases. What's more important clean air or low co2???????????
Another important point that conflicts with article: the makeup of the average vehicle is not the same. SUVs, Jeeps (for civilians) and other large alternative vehicles were much less prevalent. From a purely statistical standpoint, you cannot make a direct comparison as the samples are not compatible.
JW:
Low CO2 hands down.
Cars today weigh more than their 1960's counterparts in part because of all of the safety features mandated by the governments and sought after by consumers. ABS, traction control, front, side, and rear air bags, steel beam reinforcements, and so forth add safety, but they all have weight.
The 1960's-era car that I have in my garage includes the following safety features:
lap belt
Bigger / faster / better / more, is the American motto.
You'll notice the distinct lack of the word efficient anywhere in there.
The horsepower argument is irrelevant. The article did not say "Today Cars No More Horsepower than 1963 Models" - it talked about efficiency, namely fuel efficiency. The article is spot on in this respect. Even modern day hybrid cars are an absolute joke! Wow, they almost all get 35 MPG! I had a 15 Honda Civic that got about 32 MPG. Even the Prius isn't that impressive with its whopping 57-65 MPG. Yet in Germany they have cars that get above 70 MPG without even being a hybrid. America really needs to get with the times. Car fuel efficiency is as good today as it was so many years ago with zero progress.
I am just thinking loudly:
I've got 53 mpg (4,4 l/100km) today with my regular 1.4 liter petrol engined, no hybrid, no turbo, 5 person, full size Skoda car... Without trying to get good mpg. I have the air condition switched on. Here in europe.