![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() It is true that sales of trucks and full-size SUVs were way down in 2006, but that development didn’t translate to significant improvements in fuel consumption, which remains at near historic levels. To stand beside Toyota’s new Tundra CrewMax half-ton pickup and consider a rule-skirting, super-sized version, a la Ford’s Super Duty, is to wilt in fear and frustration. The revised, dimension-based corporate average fuel economy calculations for light trucks, going into effect in 2011, will actually create incentives for manufacturers to build bigger trucks that will jump into bigger size brackets, with lower CAFE expectations. Virtually every car on the market gets bigger over time. Cars are, on average, about 800 pounds heavier than they were two decades ago. fleet average fuel economy has been stuck at around 20 mpg for several years, as technical improvements in fuel efficiency are offset by steady increases in vehicle size and horsepower. market - represented in the acres of floor-groaning vehicles in Cobo Hall - motors on as if there were no crisis.Ĭonsider the trends: U.S. So why was I so depressed? Because all the alt-fuel, green-car progress is being made at the margins, while the vast bulk of the U.S. In sum, it was the greenest Detroit show on record. The numbers suggest the Volt could be capable of up to 150 miles per gallon on trips of 60 miles or less, and 50 mpg on long-distance drives. Should the vehicle need to go farther, a super-efficient one-liter turbocharged three-cylinder engine onboard will act like a range-extending generator. The Volt utters all the sacred shibboleths that EV enthusiasts have longed to hear: The Volt is a plug-in hybrid, which when charged from a wall socket should be able to travel 40 miles in all-electric mode - more than enough to cover most people’s daily driving using nary a drop of gas. On the floor of Cobo Hall, site of the North American International Auto Show (ending Sunday), GM unveiled its Chevy Volt concept car, a wind-cheating, four-seat electric vehicle that was the sensation of the show. G ENERAL MOTORS - the bad-daddy patriarch of Detroit, the strangler of electric cars, the 800-pound plaintiff against air-quality rules from Washington, D.C., to Sacramento - reached out and hugged a tree last week. ![]()
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