35mpg fleetwide average seems crazy to me. I average about 27mpg in the cold months and 26 when it’s warmer, and I drive a two-door that weighs about 3200 lbs. By 2020 I expect to have a family and probably will need to drive a larger sedan. I doubt very much that by then I’ll be able to buy a suitable car with similar performance that gets 35mpg, even given hybrid technology. And to combine this with ethanol mandates, which reduce fuel economy (ethanol being much less energy-dense than gasoline) is just stupid.
The one interesting area of research that I think could lead to a big breakthrough in fuel economy is the collection of energy currently lost through the tailpipe as heat. They tried it with airplane engines back in the ‘40’s and ‘50’s, and it worked but was very unreliable. Maybe new technology could solve that problem. But I’m definitely sure that government intervention will make things worse, not better.
Yeah. But you will be able to buy two sporty coupes, one for mom to drive and one for dad to drive. Take the family out for dinner, take both cars.
Both will meet 35 mpg CAFE, but family's effective mpg=17!
May sound silly, but as cars get tiny and you can no longer fit everyone in the micro-truckster comfortably, I suspect this is not going to be uncommon.
Another example of unexpected consequences of government meddling.
Feds take more control. GM sells more cars per family. Exxon sells more gas. Enviros send more thank-you donations to the dems. Everyone's happy!
CAFE doesn't care how much MPG-per-passenger a car gets. It's so damn stupid.