Auto Parts for Brains

Less than a month ago, the Environmental Protection Agency with the Department of Energy, has released their list of the top ten most fuel efficient cars for the year 2007. This is a yearly rating done by the two agencies based on several tests conducted on a variety of car models and make.

Leading the pack are the following:

• Toyota Prius hybrid-electric 60 miles per gallon in the city and 51 mpg on the highway
• Honda Civic hybrid 49 mpg in the city and 51 mpg on the highway
• Toyota Camry hybrid 40 mpg in the city and 38 mpg on the highway
• Ford Escape (2W) hybrid 36 mpg in the city and 31 mpg on the highway

Gas only Vehicles in the top ten:

• Toyota Yaris manual and automatic versions
• Honda Fit manual version
• Toyota Corolla manual version
• Hyundai Accent and Kia Rio manual versions of the

Other fuel efficient cars:

• Ford Escape (4W) hybrid 32 mpg in the city and 29 mpg on the highway
• Mercury Mariner hybrid 32 mpg in the city and 29 mpg on the highway

Looking at the list one cannot help but observe that the list was not only monopolized by Asian car manufacturers (7 out of 12 in the list) but that these companies have also produced the ones that belong in the top most of the list. Clearly, hybrids are the most fuel efficient ones. With the exception of the two wheel drive Ford Escape though, even the Asian gasoline-only line has proved more efficient than the American Hybrids.

This, for me is a clear indication of how we Americans are a voracious gasoline gulping people. It has been a while since the country has realized its dependence on gasoline, which is not only imported, but non renewable and pollution producing as well. It is a surprise though that cars produced domestically are still not at par with others that have been manufactured out of the country. I guess this stems from the innate “addiction” of the American driver to this resource. This further develops to apathy when it comes to making our wheels more fuel efficient. Even the EPA which comes up with the fuel efficiency report does nothing to enforce fuel efficiency standards. Present domestic manufacturers are still focusing less on fuel efficiency and more on making faster and bulkier engines.

The late increase on the price of gasoline has hurt the American though. And the threat it posed on household budgets has driven people to use existing technologies to cope up. Thus came the shift to hybrids. This has been an effective answer to the problem of increased fuel prices and demand, and has made a lot of satisfied American drivers. The support for this technology though is still pretty trivial, even with its fuel saving feature. Last year, for example, only 1.2 percent of car purchases are made up of hybrids.

I’d like to think that I am overreacting with regards to the country’s attitude towards alternative fuel sources, or fuel efficiency for that matter. But, what if we consider that as early as the 70’s a prototype for the hybrid was already available. Furthermore, these have been tested by the EPA then, passed for both efficiency and emission testing and was still shelved. The idea was submitted other times but was given the nod.

I know that our dependence on gasoline will eventually catch up with us. Unless something is done at the moment to address this problem, I can’t help but look forward to a nation dependent on an outside source for its growth. I get shivers just imagining what the price that dependence will require from my children in the future.