The US Auto Crisis

[44 mpg by 2010]

IF ... I and others, that are willing, could acquire "low fuel consumption vehicles" wouldn't that leave more petroleum for "our C-130's, C-5's, C-17's, KC-10's, F-16's, F22's, helicopters, naval aircraft and ships, tanks, HMMWV's, CIA Suburbans, FBI Tahoes, Border Patrol Expeditions, Police cruisers................." and for that matter, everyone else?

Each of these higher mpg machines could save on average between 400 and 600 gallons of fuel per year [10 to 15 barrels per year, or in other words, about $2,000 in imported oil/year per vehicle] ... or more. That is regardless whether that lower fuel consumption vehicle is built in the US ... or somewhere else.

That says that it only takes 1 million of these vehicles to eliminate $2 BILLION PER YEAR in oil imports ... allowing $2 BILLION PER YEAR to flow back into the US economy ... potentially generating 20,000 or more jobs.

Are you suggesting that the only solution for the US consumer is to "Let Toyota sell them the Prius" ... it will only take about 3 or 4 more years to get to that first million vehicles.

Sadly, today Ford and GM/Vauxhall already have more than 70 of them on sale in Europe and elsewhere in the world that are rated between 42/51 mpg and 58/69.6 (US/Imperial) combined cycle.
http://www.vcacarfueldata.org.uk/sea...lConSearch.asp

So, I argue:

IMPORT ... 44 mpg CARS ... NOT OIL!

IF ... THAT IS THE ONLY WAY!!

[eurohazard]

Originally Posted by 44 mpg by 2010

IF ... I and others, that are willing, could acquire "low fuel consumption vehicles" wouldn't that leave more petroleum for "our C-130's, C-5's, C-17's, KC-10's, F-16's, F22's, helicopters, naval aircraft and ships, tanks, HMMWV's, CIA Suburbans, FBI Tahoes, Border Patrol Expeditions, Police cruisers................." and for that matter, everyone else?

OK, point taken!

[xengineguy]

As Americans we love big cars and trucks. To bad the current mileage is so bad. The dealers love to sell them, GM loves to make them.
A solution I offer is to rethink the ICE engine. 1) What makes them so inefficient? 2) Why does the same vehicle with different engine sizes get different mileage?
My short answer to #1 (the crankshaft) or simply the leverage the crank uses to transfer power. Think about it,at TDC the crank has no leverage. Peek cylinder pressure is somewhere around 20 degrees ATDC, but still not much leverage. Max leverage is 90 degrees ATDC but by this point the cylinder presure has dropped to 15% or less of peek. Poor power transfer.
#2 With conventional engines,engine displacement is fixed. As the power required changes,we change the amount of air and fuel going to each cylinder. Most of the time the engine operates at a fraction of its power potential and design efficiency. Its more efficient to run a smaller displacement engine at a high power setting, than to run a large displacement at a low power setting.