EPA to revise EPA estimates -- Hybrids will suffer most?

Yes, driving that way would hurt the Prius's mileage. But if they test all cars that way, imagine how poorly a big hemi-powered SUV will do.

 

I can just see the instructions for the new MPG test...

...
Step 23: While talking into the cell phone in your right hand, accelerate to 75 MPH and cut off the rapidly accelerating car in the right-hand lane.

Avoid a collision by as narrow a margin as possible.

Step 24: Transfer cell phone to right hand; flip bird to driver you cut off with right hand.
[hr:500e0f5bbe]
Frankly, this article sounds like some wishful thinking from the big car drivers at the Wall Street Journal.

 

So what - a 22% hit would be what - 47 real life MPG while flooring the Prius (really not what would people be doing the most)? That's BAD??? Let's see - what else out there can do this? Right - another hybrid!

Would just lead to the car that would actually beat it's EPA numbers fo most part.

They can't screw up this car with a different EPA test. Real world MPG tracking on this site prove so.

 

LOL!! That is awesome.

There should be seperate instruction sets for people reading books while driving and people applying makeup on the freeway.

Herb

 

I would bet that the drop in EPA estimates will be about the same percentage accross all types of vehicles. It just seems like it hit hybrids harder, since 20% of 60MPG is a lot more than 20% of 15MPG.

Honestly, I can't see this happening, as the average MPG for the big three will drop the same percentage, in an era when half the country wants higher CAFE standards. Unless, of course, they lower the standards by the same 20%.

 

Well, driving at 80 MPH does result in a hit on the fuel economy. Returning from Walt Disney World with three of my children and the luggage in the car, we did three hundred miles in the left lane of I-75 at speeds between 83 and 93 MPH on a hot day with the air compressor running the entire time. We got a car computed 43 MPG.

City driving in 90 degree heat with the air compressor running full time results in a fuel economy hit of 5 to 8 MPG. It can be avoided by running with the windows down, but cabin comfort suffers. People can't hear you on the phone with the windows down or the blower on high, so the quick solution is to cut the A/C off at the steering wheel, let the car heat while you engage in quick conversation.

 

Well, I just got back after a few days off. I took a scenic drive through parts of North West Ontario (North of Minnesota) and most of the roads in this region have a posted 80 km/h speed limit.

Driving along with the cruise at the posted 80 km/h, the MFD routinely claimed 3.8 L/100km or 74 MPG. The tank MFD average was 4.0 L/100km or 70 MPG.

FWIW last June I took my former 2000 GMC Sierra along the same exact route, and that was when I got the best tank ever out of that truck: 11.5 L/100km or 24.6 MPG.

Oh, when Mythbusters did their "windows down or A/C on" test with the Ford Expedition, they got something like 12 MPG at steady test track speed. That's quite a bit lower than what the EPA claims at speed, which is 17 MPG with the 2WD and 5.4 V8.

I would like to see a large and respected test authority instrument a few vehicles (Prius, regular Honda Civic, Tahoe, Dodge Ram Hemi) and carefully test the fuel economy under steady-state at speeds from 80 km/h up to 120 km/h.

Unless somebody is willing to disprove most of the laws of physics, it's a simple fact that speed has the biggest influence on fuel economy at highway speeds. The faster you go, the more drag increases, and it increases approaching logarithmic values.

I've noticed a few large nationwide trucking fleets and LTL fleets have the governor set to 55 MPH or 60 MPH max. They've already studied this issue and have concluded that even if they could legally operate the trucks at 75 MPH, the dramatically increased fuel consumption simply isn't worth it.

This will go a long way to disputing this bunk about "trip time." If you're gassing up far more frequently, you're not saving any time going faster. A test like that may even support reducing the national speed limit to 55 MPH.

 

governor set to 55 MPH or 60 MPH max? The trucks in Missouri and Kansas used to blow past me and I was doing the speed limit at 70 mph.

 

I said "a few" not "all of them." Though if the price of diesel increases again, they may well consider it.

Many studies have been performed to contrast the fuel consumption vs speed at 90 km/h to 120 km/h:

http://www.ec.gc.ca/transport/publications...ucks/truck7.htm

http://www.goodyear.com/truck/pdf/radialre...etread_S9_V.pdf

http://www.iaee.org/documents/p03saffarzadeh.pdf

http://www.volvo.com/dealers-vtc/en-gb/mas...consumption.htm

http://www.epa.gov/smartway/documents/reducedspeed.pdf

 

I'm in favor of this, because alot of people, such as myself, do drive 80 mph, and the majority of people drive 70-75 in places. For example, there are many highways around the country with speed limits of 70 or 75 mph. If you MPG fanatics want to drive 60mph on these roads, prepare to have your rear end smashed by oncoming traffic (which goes 75-90 often).

 

<<Oh, when Mythbusters did their "windows down or A/C on" test with the Ford Expedition, they got something like 12 MPG at steady test track speed. That's quite a bit lower than what the EPA claims at speed, which is 17 MPG with the 2WD and 5.4 V8.>>

I saw that ep too, but I wondered how true it was to real life driving. When I am driving, once my car gets cooler, I don't keep my A/C on high anymore--I just get too cold!

babs in Lebanon PA

 

I think AC gas consumption shouldn't be combined with mpg, because it should be given in hours of AC operation (under some standard conditions) per gallon. Such a rating would be useful info for us here in Phoenix!

The Prius ought to come out well in such a rating, because the compressor is driven by a separate electric motor - the gas engine being used to charge the battery, which it can do at high efficiency RPM, vs the usual arrangement of driving the compressor by the gas engine at various RPM's, including idling (low efficiency) a lot of the time (in traffic).

The auto climate control system should minimize gas consumption by its scaling back blower speeds after the desired cabin temp is reachedl.