Energy conservation… For those of you who know me well, this is something that I’m interested in. It was good to hear the “20 in 10″ goal, but personally I think that’s a little weak.
In 10 years time, I’m betting the majority of people out there will have replaced their vehicles. Just doing a quick search of wikipedia I found this: “The average fuel efficiency of European cars is over 40 mpg (5.9 L/100 km), Japanese cars 45 mpg (5.2 L/100 km), and North American cars 20.4 mpg (11.5 L/100 km).” Add to that the fact that Americans lover their SUVs which average “16 mpg (15 L/100 km) highway and 13 mpg (US) (18 L/100 km)”. Do you see where I’m going with this?
European and Japanese cars get double the average fuel economy that American cars get! It’s no wonder that Ford lost $24,000 a minute last year.
Unfortunately for me, my Golf TDI which averaged about 46 mpg was totaled this year. I replaced it with a Dodge Dakota which gets a horrible 15 – 17mpg. Eventually I will replace it or purchase a more efficient daily driver and use the gas guzzler only when necessary.
Hmm, I found this the other day. 80mpg! It’s tempting…