A return to gas mileage...
Some time ago I did a small rant on gas mileage. (miles-per-gallon-rant
It was annoying me that it seems that mileage wasn';t getting any better and the the car companies seemed to be saying that 25 mpg was really good. Well, now that gas has gone up and people are complaining about the costs I decided to review the issue. It was brought to mind when I saw a commercial for the new Toyota Yaris that gets 40 mpg highway. So I thought I would see what else is good out there. Of course the Honda and Toyota hybrids are the best. The Toyotas at about 51 and the Honda Insight at 63. VW has several in the 40-47 range, Saturn's ION runs in the low 40s. The Honda Civic Non hybrid) can get up to 51 and isn't a horribly expensive car.
So the mileage is coming up a bit.
On a related issue, I saw a thing about E85 ethanol the other day. One of the issues to it's use nationwide is that many cars need to be modified to burn it effectively. GM makes some cars that are called Flexfuel.
I think that if they Auto companies just made all engines flexfuel then Americans would soon be demanding the E85 because it it so much cheaper. The market would drive the issue.
It was annoying me that it seems that mileage wasn';t getting any better and the the car companies seemed to be saying that 25 mpg was really good. Well, now that gas has gone up and people are complaining about the costs I decided to review the issue. It was brought to mind when I saw a commercial for the new Toyota Yaris that gets 40 mpg highway. So I thought I would see what else is good out there. Of course the Honda and Toyota hybrids are the best. The Toyotas at about 51 and the Honda Insight at 63. VW has several in the 40-47 range, Saturn's ION runs in the low 40s. The Honda Civic Non hybrid) can get up to 51 and isn't a horribly expensive car.
So the mileage is coming up a bit.
On a related issue, I saw a thing about E85 ethanol the other day. One of the issues to it's use nationwide is that many cars need to be modified to burn it effectively. GM makes some cars that are called Flexfuel.
starting in 2006, GM will produce more than 400,000 flexible fuel vehicles annually -- vehicles that can also operate on gasoline or E85 ethanol without any modifications or special switchesis what it says on the GM webpage talking about it. (flexfuel) My question is this. If GM is serious about promoting e85 ethanol, why aren't ALL of their new cars Flexfuel? If every car GM made could use E85 ethanol, gasoline or any mixture there of that would SERIOUSLY help the spread and development of ethanol in the US. This is what Brazil did and they expect to become energy independent this year. (they make ethanol from sugar cane instead of corn) So we see that it can be done.
I think that if they Auto companies just made all engines flexfuel then Americans would soon be demanding the E85 because it it so much cheaper. The market would drive the issue.
posted by exMI | 08:50
3 Comments:
You probably know this already but Brazil uses E100, i.e. 100% ethanol. 50% of all cars there now use it and almost all cars there are sold there are that way now.
I think the only way we are going to unshackle ourselves from oil is if we do what Brazil did. Pass a law stating that gas stations must put in pumps for 100% ethanol and then let the people speak with their wallets when they start buying flexfuel vehicles.
85% is a good enough start for me. When someone figures they can save more moeny without any gas at all it will happen.
Got a problem with the gas prices? Use less gas. That's something America needs to figure out.
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