Last week at the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in Detroit, we spoke with Dr. Pete Savagian of General Motors about what the Chevrolet Volt's fuel economy sticker would look like. Last summer former GM CEO Fritz Henderson made a big splash when he announced that the Volt was getting approximately 230 miles-per-gallon combined. However, that number was based on a draft proposal by the EPA for a testing methodology for plug-in vehicles.
That proposal has never been made public, although it was believed to include running through the 11-mile test cycle repeatedly until the battery was depleted and then going through the cycle once more. The fuel consumption was then calculated based on the fuel used and the total miles driven. The 230 mpg figure drew a lot of criticism as being unrealistic, and for many drivers it would be. For others who drive short distances and charge regularly, it could actually be a conservative figure.
With only six months to go until Volt production begins, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the EPA still has not finalized the mileage calculation procedure for these vehicles. The results you get are highly dependent on the driving duty cycle and a panel discussion at the SAE Congress on the subject of ratings did little to clarify the subject. GM's Savagian is confident that the EPA will finalize a test and labeling procedure soon, however. And they'd better, because by law, all new cars are required to carry a MPG sticker.
We knew it was coming. Today, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency jointly released new federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) fuel mileage and greenhouse gas emissions requirements that will cover the 2012 through 2016 model years. The estimated fleet-wide fuel economy standard has been set at 34.1 miles per gallon by 2016, though improvements in air conditioning systems will bring that number up to around 35 mpg. That equals a standard of roughly 250 grams of carbon dioxide per mile.
The overall fleet fuel mileage requirement will be an average between both passenger cars and light trucks, and NHTSA is predicting that the 2012 numbers will be 33.3 for cars and 25.4 for trucks in 2012, rising to 37.8 for cars and 28.8 for trucks by 2016. As before, credits will be dished out for vehicles that can run on E85 (ethanol), though automakers will need to prove their cars are running on the alcohol fuel by 2015 to continue earning those credits.
Smaller volume automakers that sold fewer that 400,000 cars in 2009 will get a break on the requirements while "specialty automakers" such as BMW and Porsche will reportedly get longer lead-in times. Automakers will also get some sort of incentive for the first 200,000 plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles built by 2016. These standards are said to be equivalent to taking 58 million cars off our nation's roads for a year, representing a savings of 1.8 billion barrels of oil.
According to the latest report from the Environmental Protection Agency, Ford has scored the biggest improvement in combined fuel economy of any major carmaker over the last five years. Between 2005 and 2009, Ford improved its fleet average by nearly 20 percent – almost twice as much as any other company. While Ford certainly made a lot of incremental improvements in the efficiency of its vehicles over that period, that wasn't the only factor.
That same time period saw a huge shift in the model mix at Ford. Sales of SUVs like the Explorer and Expedition collapsed as consumers moved to crossovers like the Edge and Flex (oh, and we suppose a car or two). The Explorer has gone from more than 400,000 annual sales earlier this decade to just over 68,000 last year.
Ford has made actual improvements, as well, however, including the introduction of the Escape Hybrid and the roll out of six-speed transmissions. The next five years should see even bigger gains as Ford deploys millions of EcoBoost engines, battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.
There is some ethanol in almost all of the gasoline sold in the U.S. Usually, this amount is no more than 10 percent of the total and, if it's more than that, it jumps all the way to 85 percent and is sold as E85. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was supposed to come down on one side or the other today of a possible increase across the board to 15 percent that Growth Energy and 54 ethanol manufacturers asked for, but instead announced that it needs more time.
The EPA has been looking at the E15 issue all year and investigating all sorts of issues, but there are a lot of moving parts in this sort of decision. Everyone from farmers and their subsidies to grow the corn used to make most of the ethanol sold today to car makers who have tuned their engines to run on E10 but not E15 want to have their say. The EPA has heard the comments, and now says that it needs more time to test E15 in vehicles. Right now, it thinks that any vehicle built after 2001 will burn E15 just fine, but there are a lot of older vehicles still on the road. Cash For Clunkers didn't get all of them off the road, after all. A decision is now expected in mid-June 2010.
The postponement was met with approval by the Alliance of Automobile Manufactures, which said they want more government testing "to prove that increasing the allowable ethanol blend limit will not harm vehicle emissions, performance, and durability."
Quick – what's the most fuel efficient car currently for sale in America? Did you guess the Toyota Prius? If so, give yourself a cookie, you're right. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the 2010 version of Toyota's seminal hybrid once again scores the mileage victory with its estimated 51 mpg city and 48 highway.
Second place is grabbed by a set of newcomers to the hybrid arena for the 2010 model year: Ford's Fusion sedan and its sibling from Mercury, the Milan. The Blue Oval's hybrid duo earn EPA ratings of 41 city and 36 highway, making them the most fuel efficient midsize sedans in America.
Rounding out the top 10 vehicle platforms are the Civic Hybrid and Insight from Honda; the Lexus HS 250h; the Nissan Altima Hybrid; the Ford Escape, Mazda Tribute and Mercury Mariner hybrid 'utes; Smart's Fortwo coupe and cabriolet (the only non-hybrids in the top 10); Toyota's Camry Hybrid and finally the Lexus RX 450h.
Ever wonder what actually goes into determining the rated fuel economy of a new car or truck? Anyone with a vehicle that's failed to live up to its EPA estimated figures would surely fit into that camp – especially if the car or truck were purchased in large part to its high mileage rating – and you can add our names to that list as well. As it turns out, the process is every bit as as complicated as we'd expect.
Car and Driver recently hung out at the EPA's testing facility near the Motor City, and some highly intriguing bits of information were gleaned. For instance, CD says that just 15 percent of new cars get tested by the EPA each year for fuel efficiency, and the rest get their ratings from testing performed by the manufacturer using the government agency's guidelines. It's reportedly rare that the EPA's figures vary greatly from the numbers provided by the manufacturer, but if they do, discussions and negotiations ensue.
There are a total of five tests performed to measure expected fuel efficiency, some dating all the way back to the late Seventies. More recent protocols are a bit more complex and require specialized facilities that can cost up to $10 million dollars by EPA estimates. There's plenty more to the story, so click here to read the full four-page report.
Margo Oge, EPA director-office of transportation and air quality, has made a plea to the auto industry to end the current horsepower wars that have produced such vehicles as the 620-hp Corvette ZR1. Instead, she hopes the industry, specifically domestic automakers, will start a new war, a green war, to create the "most affordable and desirable, low carbon-vehicle each year." Such a challenge, she claims, could help spark economic growth and see the transportation sector "reclaim the mantle of the country's economic growth over the next decade."
Her arguments, which can be read in more detail at Ward's Auto, are well reasoned, and while automakers can hardly deny their part in an arms race for more horsepower, many are also on the front lines of a battle to make green vehicles that are more desirable than their competitors. One need only look at the squabbling that goes back and forth between GM and Toyota over which is better, a series hybrid like the Volt or a parallel hybrid like the Prius. The latter two automakers, being the largest full-line automakers in the world, are forced to deal with the dissonance of producing desirable, high-horsepower sports cars and full-size trucks while at the same time being on the cutting edge of new green technology. It's not hypocrisy, it's the reality of offering many different types of vehicles to the widest range of customers.
And despite Oge's plea, automakers are keenly aware of what needs to be done in order to meet new, stricter CAFE standards by 2020. GM has already cancelled plans for a new V8 and Ford has practically committed itself to replacing eight-cylinder engines with more efficient turbocharged, direct-inject V6 powerplants. The rub is that any progress made by an automaker to make its vehicles more green cannot happen at the expense of performance, reliability and comfort. We want our new cars to be as good as they were last year in every way, with better fuel economy and cleaner emissions. It's a tall order, but don't worry Margo. Both federal regulations and consumer pressure guarantee they're working hard on it.
