Better Fuel Ecomony and Increased Horsepower

Improve Fuel Efficiency Other parts of the world also have increased need for gasoline. The huge populations of China and India are now becoming more affluent and looking for personal transportation and the fuel to drive it. So what will it take to provide energy sustainability? The short-term and immediate solution is to make our vehicles more economical. CAFÉ, the United States Corporate Average Fuel Economy rating, is currently 27.5 mpg for cars and 22.2 mpg for trucks under 8500 GVWR (US mpg). Proposed regulations will increase this to an industry average of 35 mpg US or 6.7 litres per 100 km. To do this, smaller and lighter vehicles will be one of the keys. It is generally known that lighter vehicles get better fuel economy. For example, a 10 per cent reduction in weight will provide about four per cent improvement in fuel economy. If vehicle size is also reduced along with the weight and a smaller engine used, the economy can improve up to eight per cent, with no change in vehicle performance. However, in the past 10 years, the average weight of vehicles in North America has increased 10 to 20 per cent. Some of this additional weight is because of more safety and convenience features, but most of it is simply due to larger vehicle size. Park a new pickup truck beside one 10 years old and the size difference is remarkable! Small and light is good when it comes to fuel economy. Another way we can improve fuel economy is to go back to the performance levels of 1987. If we look at the horsepower increases since that time and the performance levels, acceleration times for cars from zero to 60 miles per hour has dropped from 15 seconds down to nine seconds and average fuel economy improving slightly. Trucks are similar, with 0 to 60 mph times going from 15 seconds down to 10 seconds on average but with fuel economy staying the same. Several technologies have enabled this, such as direct fuel injection, variable cam timing, variable induction systems and reduced internal engine friction. Performance is great, but if we used all those improvements for fuel economy instead of power, passenger cars that now average 29 mpg US would now be getting 38 mpg, and trucks would jump from 21 mpg US to about 30 mpg. READ MORE