Here's another article which USA Today will charge you a buck for
if you wait until tomorrow:
<Carmakers: 100 mpg 'no big deal'
Investors have treated an inventor's 95-mile-per-gallon diesel
minicar as a breakthrough, but automakers have been showing 100-mpg
cars for years.
Joseph LaStella, founder of B.A.T. International, announced this
month that his Burbank, Calif., firm got exceptional mileage from
a modified diesel-powered Geo Metro at 40 miles per hour.
That "ain't no big deal," says Kathleen Mihelich, spokeswoman
for General Motors Research and Development Center, summarizing
the attitude of big automakers and industry analysts.
GM's 1992 Ultralite concept car got 100 mpg at 50 miles per hour
using conventional gas. Ultralite also claimed half the pollution
of a conventional car. B.A.T. hasn't tested for pollution.
Ford Motor showed off Ka Step 1 minicar in England in 1996, boasting
130 mpg at a 37.5 mph, and 90-plus mpg in a European stop-and-go
test.
Chrysler plans to sell a 70-mpg midsize sedan in 2003, and Honda
foresees a 70-mpg U.S. minicar in a few years.
Barriers to fuel-efficient cars are cost, gas prices and pollution
rules.
Chrysler says it would have to charge a $15,000 premium today
for its Dodge Intrepid ESX2, the 70-mpg sedan. It hopes to slice
that to zero by the time it sells such a car.
As long as fuel prices are low, buyers don't care much about
fuel economy. The 10 most fuel-efficient cars and the 10 best
trucks together accounted for about 1% of total sales last year.
Regardless of fuel efficiency, a car can't legally be sold
unless it passes increasingly strict federal emissions tests when
new and after 50,000 miles.
But B.A.T. spokesman Bill Wason says quibbling over mileage misses
the point. He says B.A.T. technology can improve the fuel economy
of most engines - small or large, diesel or gasoline - 30% to
40%. "Detroit is saying, 'We could theoretically do this,
but it will be years and cost a lot.' And we're saying that the
changes to components to get these results don't add to costs,"
Wason says. The technology could as easily be used to boost a
15-mpg sport-utility vehicle to 20 mpg as to create a 100-mpg
tiny car.
So what is the best fuel economy you can expect within, say, five
years in affordable, family-size cars? About the 70 mpg claimed
by Chrysler and Honda.
And you'll only see token numbers of those if consumer tastes
don't shift away from thirsty trucks. Governments should force
the shift, Wason says. Thus, B.A.T. is behind a proposal to forgive
California's 6% sales tax on new cars if they get 65 mpg.
By James R. Healey, USA TODAY> |
