LITTLE CHANGE
Yesterday I was having a discussion with someone about cars and driving. (I’ve always said that I have no plan to buy a car until I can get one that’s fully electric and drives itself: a bit of science fiction that appears to finally be just around the corner...) Our main point of discussion and disagreement was about fuel efficiency and my contention that, curiously, cars haven’t gotten any more efficient over the years. My debating counterpart suggested that cars are in fact much more efficient, but that they do a lot more than in the past using the same amount of fuel. And this is why the miles-per-gallon, or litres-per-hundred-kilometres, measure hasn’t changed much and doesn’t make it entirely reasonable to compare what are essentially apples and oranges. Of course she was right about that. Still I was happy to argue that if someone came along and doubled the size and weight of all available bicycles and made them capable of reaching twice their original top speed, while making them harder to pedal, I wouldn’t be celebrating the innovation, or even think of the change as an improvement. Instead, I’d be mourning the loss…
Ultimately, neither of us had any solid numbers and we were just sharing vague anecdotes. So I thought I would do some research. Fuel efficiency, it turns out, is actually a pretty interesting topic.
Digging around I learned that the first gas powered automobile invented was the 1886 Benz Patent Motorwagen. (Say “motor” like you have a golf ball in your mouth, and “wagen” by replacing the 'w' with a 'v' and then barking it, “VAGEN”, in a quick shrill tone like you were suddenly struck in the crotch with a taser. Ya, just like that. Perfect. Now you speak German. You’re welcome.) This one-cylinder, three-wheeled beauty achieved approximately 25 miles per gallon. (It only came into being a full 120 years after the first steam powered vehicle and 80 years after the first hydrogen fueled internal-combustion engine.) The world’s first affordable mass-produced automobile, the Ford Motor Company’s Model T, got up to 21 miles per gallon and did so way back in 1908. Within a decade or so of the first Model T, now with millions of vehicles on the road, the fuel efficiency of the entire U.S. automobile fleet was calculated to be an average of 14 mpg. From there fuel efficiency continued on a slow but steady decline, reaching a low of just 12 mpg in 1973 as vehicles grew larger and heavier. With the world fuel crisis of the 70s, efficiency started to improve, but very slowly. Between 1974 and 1991 average fuel efficiency improved by just five miles per gallon, putting the U.S. average at 17 mpg. And, interestingly, by 2008 average fuel efficiency was only about 0.2 mpg better. So, despite a plethora of new technologies and materials, and engineering improvements of all kinds, fuel efficiency has gone virtually unchanged for a century.
And, in case you think the U.S. is particularly bad for some reason, the data is similar for other countries. The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution in the U.K. showed that fuel economy there has actually worsened since the 1980s. In Australian, where gas prices are much higher than in North America, the numbers are also poor. There the Australian Bureau of Statistics conducts an annual survey estimating the average fuel consumption of all passenger vehicles in the country. Clearly documented there are the raw numbers showing that between 1963, when data was first collected, and 2012 fuel efficiency has seen virtually no change: from a low of 11 litres per 100 km to a high of 13.7 (which roughly translates to a U.S. measure of 19 mpg.)
Now, you’re right to note that these numbers represent the average of all automobile traffic: cars and trucks, new and old. Yes, there are energy efficient cars out there and many cars on the road today get better than the 21 mpg benchmark set at the turn of the last century. Even if you look instead at the average of all new models for a given year, energy efficiency appears to have climbed in the last decade or so. The average of all 2014 U.S. model cars, for instance, was 24 mpg. But I think we can agree that this is somewhat less than impressive, especially when you consider the priority of, and resources invested in, automobiles and related technologies.
Many folks appear to agree that improvements in engine efficiency in recent years have been largely offset by a trend toward larger, heavier, four-wheel-drive transportation. For specific examples, look the newest models of the Fiat 500, Suzuki Swift, and Mini Cooper – some of the smallest most fuel efficient cars on the road – are both larger in size and close to twice the weight of their predecessors. And this despite using modern lightweight materials. At the other end of the size spectrum you have vehicles like the Land Rover, Toyota Land Cruiser, and Nissan Patrol. Over the last few significant model changes, each vehicle has grown by half a tonne or more. That's a lot more vehicle to move around.
Interestingly, and highly relevant to overall fleet efficiency, is the change in truck sales. In the 1980s light trucks comprised just one fifth of all passenger vehicle sales. But these days these trucks represent more than half of all vehicles sold. That’s a huge and critical change and has had a very significant impact on efficiency numbers. Other contributing factors to the relatively stagnant mpg figure are the air conditioning, power windows, power brakes, and power steering, along with ever-larger and more elaborate sound, lighting, and airbag systems that have become standard kit in modern vehicles. All of these components add to the weight and the energy consumption of vehicles.
In all the research I did I found it most interesting to look at specific vehicles and their efficiency evolution, or lack thereof. For fun I made a list of some popular vehicles, in various classes, with a significant production range to look at and compare. Check it out:
Ford Fiesta: 1986, 34 mpg - 1997, 32 mpg - 2014, 32 mpg VW Jetta: 1981, 48 mpg - 1996, 30 mpg - 2014, 37 mpg Fiat 500: 1967, 43 mpg - 2008, 41 mpg - 2014, 32 mpg Suzuki Swift: 1990, 33 mpg - 2000, 40 mpg - 2014, 35 mpg
VW Beetle: 1967, 28 mpg - 2004, 28 mpg - 2013, 22 mpg Toyota Corolla: 1984, 26 mpg - 1994, 30 mpg - 2013, 30 mpg Ford Taurus: 1989, 23 mpg - 2002, 22 mpg - 2014, 22 mpg Honda Civic: 1987, 46 mpg - 2002, 36 mpg - 2014, 33 mpg (*Honda Civic Hybrid: 2013, 45 mpg)
Jeep Cherokee: 1986, 17 mpg - 1998, 17 mpg - 2014, 22 mpg Toyota Land Cruiser: 1983, 16 mpg - 2002, 16 mpg - 2014,16 mpg Ford Explorer: 1991, 19 mpg - 2001, 17 mpg - 2013, 14 mpg Land Rover Range Rover: 1980, 20 mpg - 1998, 16 mpg - 2013, 15 mpg
Ford F150: 1990, 9 mpg - 2001, 15 mpg - 2014, 15 mpg Dodge Dakota: 1987, 32 mpg - 2000, 16 mpg - 2010, 17 mpg Toyota Tacoma: 1995, 20 mpg - 2004, 18 mpg - 2014, 18 mpg Chevrolet Silverado: 1988, 18 mpg - 2001, 16 mpg - 2013, 15 mpg
Chevrolet Astro: 1989, 20 mpg - 1997, 16 mpg - 2005, 16 mpg Dodge Grand Caravan: 1990, 22 mpg - 2002, 19 mpg - 2013, 20 mpg Chrysler Town & Country: 1996, 18 mpg - 2006, 18 mpg - 2014, 20 mpg VW Transporter: 1967, 22 mpg - 1990, 27 mpg - 2013, 25 mpg
It seems as though the automobile will always be a terribly inefficient mode of transportation; and rough roads, wide tires, those constant quick starts and stops only make the situation much worse. From what I’ve seen, gas-powered vehicles and even their hybrid cousins are designed to be guzzlers as not one is even capable of sipping fuel. From an engineering standpoint, I’m told that even the most efficient gas car is at best around 20-30% efficient – wasting much of their energy as unneeded and unwanted heat. By comparison, fully electric vehicles are around 90% efficient. Given this, it really is exciting to note the many fully-electric vehicles beginning to enter the market.
Viva la revolución!
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