Average MPG for 2010 cars went down from 2009... SUV sales up.

Besides me ... is there anyone else that notices the nexus between legislators that keep VOTING to keep land barge transportation out of the CARB mix ... and the geographical LOCATIONS of the legislators' constituents ??? Coincidentally, these legislators serve areas that BUILD land barges. How 'bout that.


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The news item isn't really news but seems to be fairly misleading. The mix of cars versus trucks and SUVs changed after cash for clunkers and hence the fuel economy decreased on new vehicles by 0.1 mpg. Not really meaningful, especially when you take into account that these trucks and SUVs may have been replacing worse mileage vehicles.

The fleet is not improving greatly, but at least truck standards have been raised. The effects of the oil price rise was not included in this data at all.

I'm not sure where these things are. I believe it was the govenator, who hails from california that got the hummer built, which helped get legislation passed. When the bush administration put into law to include heavy duty SUVs but not trucks under cafe laws, the federal court sent the motion back. The EPA and NHTSA have the ball now

EPA and NHTSA Propose First-Ever Program to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Improve Fuel Efficiency of Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicles | US EPA

I honestly don't know who is for exempting monstrous class SUVs. I do know a number of democrats and republicans that want to exempt commercial heavy duty trucks. I hope they do pass some regulation. If you have the names of the bad legislators let us know. I'm sure barton and imhoff are on the list.

 

Diesel hybrid or diesel-hydraulic hybrid will be the only way to make these big vehicles efficient and by efficient I mean 20ish mpg instead of 11ish...but any improvement will help.

 

I have friends with a prototype 18 wheeler diesel electric tractor. They would love to get 11 mpg Payback over a standard vehicle is 2.5 years, which means if they can prove reliability sales will simply follow.

 

Well those are another story. I heard UPS was doing good with the hybrid-hydraulics and there was an Expedition that used hydro-hybrid technology with only a 1.8l VW diesel to charge the accumulator.

Trains and Tractors will take some major innovation to get that high!

 

UPS Rolls Out 200 More Hybrid Electric Trucks | Business | GreenBiz.com

I think UPS made like 7 of those hydraulic-hybrids, they are really moving to more conventional hybrid-electrics. My UPS driver has one of the new ones. PHEV is my idea of the future of Delivery trucks, especially in big cities.

I really think the expedition is a dying breed. As soon as real cafe rules hit I doubt many will buy the huge SUV.

 

How? They are on the road constantly. Overnight is the only time they can charge.

 

It depends on how long the route is. Some companies might be ok w/even pure EVs for short enough routes.

Doing Delivery Rounds in an Electric Smith Newton has only a 16-mile route in NYC.

 

Exactly. Most delivery trucks are set up in a hub spoke system, with a central dispatch location. these can rapid charged when brought in to load. Ford has limited sales of the electric transit connect for these short haul (less than 100 miles). For larger trucks and/or larger routes PHEV makes sense.

I think you were really talking about the larger long haul trucking. Here the recharges do not help as much, but PHEV also makes sense. THis is mainly because the battery packs are large enough to warrent a plug, and truckers often sleep in their trucks so plug in hvac makes sense. The plug offers a $15,000 tax credit to help pay for the hybridization of trucks over 26,000 pounds.

UPS seems to be saving 30% gasoline on their hybrid delivery trucks. I think adding a bigger pack, a plug, and the knowledge of the pilot program can save much more.

 

That's great. I wonder if they have any here? In Atlanta the UPS guys leave at about 5am and I sometimes get deliveries at 7pm so I can only assume they are out to at least 8pm. I doubt a PHEV would do them much good.

I agree about big SUVs but large and necessary work trucks could adopt a similar system, you could put accumulators in the bed of the truck where a toolbox would normally go and not lose too much bed, or have an extended cab that only sat two...something like that.

Maybe those mini delivery vans like the Mercedes and Ford would be good PHEV candidates?

 

Consumer Reports tested the Chevrolet Cruze LS and got overall 25 GPM. Woo am I ever glad I did not buy the Cruze that I checked out, before I bought the Prius. The Cruze was to small and cramped, that was my wife's observation and she would not have been happy. Sure happy with the Prius, especially when the price at the pump now went to $3.75.

 

Our Fiesta kills the Cruze...and looks cooler too.

Of course I cannot give you solid MPG data because my wife didn't reset the trip computer BUT...gage shows 34mpg for all city driving so I would imagine its at least 30 if not 32ish if its off by as much as Prius..not bad for a car rated 28 city.