Hybrids challenged by regular cars on fuel economy: Washingtonpost.com

Fueleconomy.gov has 4 samples for the 2011 Elantra. Elantra forum members are reporting all kinds of numbers both high and low. It is still cold and some of the numbers are going to be lower. I do not see 40 mpg highway as unattainable for the Elentra in summer temps at 60mph.

 

Ok so lets assume 40mpg is "attainable" in the summer on the highway with the Elentra. How is that even close to Prius mileage? In the winter driving 80-100mph and driving up and down mountain roads I get better than that. In the summer I get at least 125% better than that without even trying. I get 150% better with a little effort.

 

FWIW, CR on an '11 Elantra 1.8L 4 w/6AT, got 20 city/39 highway, 29 mpg overall and 35 mpg on a 150 mile trip. 2011 Top Pick Small car: Hyundai Elantra also mentions the 29 mpg overall and 39 mpg highway.

All of those figures are quite far from what CR got on the 3rd gen Prius (Most fuel-efficient cars).

 

And that's probably the Elantra with trunk which is lighter than the hatchback. I don't like to compare sedans to hatchbacks, not really apples to apples.

I wen't back and looked at FE on our good old friend ... the Toyota Matrix 1.8L automatic ....

25 city / 31 hwy for a whopping 28 MPG combined ... that is 3.57 gal/100mi vs. Prius 2 gal/100mi ....

IOW, the Matrix 1.8L burns 78% more gasoline average than 3rd gen Prius, 78%, that's almost double.

and the Matrix reported 100 lbs lighter than Prius. All that for being $3,800 less, no smart key, no push button start, no cruise control at that price, and more no's.

Hopefully just another nail in the coffin of conventional cars ... they suck.

 

It is not close to Prius but it is close to Insight and beats Volt on the highway hence the title of the article. Most hybrids are going to reign supreme in city mpg.

 

They reign supreme in average mpg which is what matters in the real world. The rare few that buy a car just for highway driving are they only ones who may disagree.

 

Close to insight on the highway, not close in the city. Insight wins.

Volt is just an embarrassment, but it really isn't comparable to most other conventional cars out there other than the 2010/2011 PHV Prii in California.

And the Prius beats the highway mileage and city mileage.

Just seems silly to say they come close when you need optimal conditions to come close to conditions only attainable in the worst case.

 

Thank you.

Maybe there are some unusual drivers who live in remote areas and jump on highway roads most of the time. Then again, those areas will have the least density of cars.

It's the congested sub(urban) areas where most of cars are. They are going to be getting city, or average fuel economy.

I think highway fuel economy numbers are just overhyped and another trick being used to make conventional cars look better. They still suck and need to be done away with in < 20 years.

 

I think most people in general will get closer to city mileage than highway, for the majority of miles they drive on their car.

 

CNN picked up on this today. They have a story and photos on their website.

Tom

 

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/autos/1103/gallery.fuel_efficient_cars/index.html

Sad that in none of the pages there they mention that the premier hybrid on the market gets almost twice the city mpg of any of these. Yes, who needs hybrids indeed.

 

Isn't it amazing how people can so obviously miss the facts when it doesn't fit their agenda? I swear critical thinking should be taught in all schools starting at Kindergarten!

 

I wish them well, but I'll not buy another car with a conventional transmission. The HSD is more durable and has no shift lag.

 

This article shows just how much the media is "owned" by commercial interests.
In this case, big oil and American car companies, who use "highway" mpg as an advertising ploy.

This is a phony argument. The real mpg advantage with hybrids, of course, is with "city" mpg. That's the one that counts for most suburban and city driving. Going to the shopping malls, etc.

ICE cars can't compete with hybrids in the mpg that counts. One way they could improve, of course, is to have auto engine shutoff at traffic lights and traffic jams.
An immense amount of gasoline is wasted in this country because of traffic lights.
Auto shutoff is the obvious solution. But that would decrease the amount of gasoline consumed. Big oil doesn't want that.

Isn't that what this is all about?

 

Ford is adding auto start stop to all their cars. I expect bmw to do this also, they have already added it to some of their premier cars like the M3.

 

Auto Stop-Start Technology by Ford Heading to the US in 2012 - SlashGear

No. You'll have music and AIR. The cooling system on these is belt driven, as is the AC. How long a stop until your warm air disappears or your cold air disappears?

If it's applicable I've turned AC off in a car and noticed that the air gets warm within about 10 seconds.

Does anybody know how well these systems work? Mazda was working on (maybe others, too), a way to time the crank such that instead of using a starter to start after traffic it would spark the already compressed cylinder and start that way. I think they gave up on it but I'm not sure. Will this approach use normal starters and will the average person tolerate a delay in acceleration for the drawbacks of a less integrated starter (than the Prius has) and hot/cold air problems?

Ah, I found this:

 

Good for Ford. But it's still a drop in the bucket. Prius has had it for years. What about the rest of the Toyotas, and others?

We live in a consumption oriented society. In a world of increasingly limited resources with an expanding population. Something's gotta give.

 

How many people live in the city and how many live on the highway?

 

c'mon now .... how do ya EXPECT the EPA to post mileage ... dead soldiers per mile? Folks can only take so much reality.

 

Much fuel could be saved and emissions reduced by people simply not idling their monstrosity-on-wheels in mall and grocery store parking lots while their spouses go shopping.

Just the other day at Fry's I saw a big burly Texan in his decked out monster truck parked in the "Electric Vehicles Only" spot with his engine running. When I came out about twenty minutes later he was still there idling away, blissfully ignorant of his ignorance.