Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency reported that the average fuel
economy of the nation’s cars and trucks had reached a 22-year low. Given
the technological and engineering advancements that have impacted other areas
of the automotive industry in recent years—the average vehicle has 93% more
horsepower than it did in 1981, and is 29% faster in going from 0-60 mph —this
figure seems particularly atrocious.
Of course, the problem is weight. As a result of the popularity of sport utility
vehicles and minivans, the average vehicle is today 24% heavier than it was 20
years ago. According to the EPA’s report, if performance and weight of vehicles
had remained constant since 1981, fuel economy would be 33% better today.
So who’s to blame? Is it the auto manufacturers? Is it Joe Consumer? Is it
the government? One can make a compelling argument against any of these groups.
The automakers—which tend to take the most heat on this issue—argue
that they are simply responding to consumer demand. And to their credit, most
of the major car manufacturers offer at least one “green” model. The
problem is that those models aren’t terribly popular with consumers. According
to the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the top 10 most fuel-efficient vehicles
on the market comprise less than 2% of total automobile sales in the U.S.
Speaking of Uncle Sam . . . he hasn’t exactly done his part in raising fuel
economy standards either. While the government’s corporate average fuel economy
(CAFE) regulations sound rather impressive (they require that automakers achieve
a fleet-wide average of 27.5 miles per gallon for cars and 20.7 for light trucks),
they feature a number of loopholes, which carmakers take advantage of regularly.
One of these loopholes lies in the simple fact that nobody has defined what is
a car and what is a truck. As a result, automakers simply define their SUVs and
minivans as trucks, and get away with meeting the lower CAFE standards.
Another problem with the CAFE standards is that they offer little resemblance
to real world driving conditions. Instead, they are calculated in a controlled
laboratory environment. According to Business Week magazine, those calculations
are “roughly 15% higher than what vehicles get when they’re actually
on the road. So U.S. cars burn an extra 1.1 million barrels of oil a day, or more
than 400 million barrels a year, than the CAFE levels imply they ought to.”
Ultimately, the power and responsibility for making improvements in fuel economy
lies with the consumer. When we start telling Detroit that we want—and are
willing to pay for—lighter, more fuel-efficient vehicles, the auto industry
will respond by giving us just that. But unfortunately, there are too many of
us out there in our beloved gas-guzzling SUVs and minivans (yours truly, included)
who figure that somebody else should be the first to take that step.
