How much gasoline could US citizens save by driving around in light-weight hybrid vehicles? Up to half what they currently use, say scientists at MIT.

The US consumes about 140 billion gallons of gasoline each year. A team of researchers led by John Heywood has completed a five-year assessment of what can be done to slash that and save fuel for the nation.

They looked at how gas and diesel engines, as well as hybrid electric cars and plug-in cars, are likely to evolve between now and 2035. They also assessed what can reasonably be expected from new fuels such as hydrogen and biofuels.

“Improvements” in cars in recent years have largely focused on increasing performance, driven by the demand for ever-larger and more powerful cars. As a result, no significant fuel consumption gains have been realised over the past 25 years, says the team.

They call for car manufacturers to focus efforts on improving fuel savings over performance.

Lighten the load

A seemingly simple way of reducing the amount of fuel used by cars without a big change in consumer preferences would be to produce lighter cars. Heywood’s team estimate that the average US car 25 years from now could feasibly weigh between 20% and 35% less without compromising on security and convenience. This alone would cut fuel consumption by between 12% and 20%.

I’m always amazed to see that one of the obstacles constantly cited by developers of smaller, alternative, and more fuel-efficient cars is that they “don’t pass safety tests”.  Um, how about we reevaluate the safety tests?  Right now it seems to be a demolition derby mentality out there; in other words, who can own and drive the car (read SUV) that can smash into you and sustain little damage.  A kind of “my car can smash up your car” way of thinking when we go out to buy something new. 

So, how about we change the rules.  If everyone were driving lighter cars with less “protection”, then a hit from another car would be relatively OK.  “Relative” is the key word here.  A large heavy car (again, read “SUV”), running into a small car, say a Prius, could be very damaging to the Prius and it’s owner.  However, if most people were driving light, and hence more fuel-efficient cars, then a Prius hitting say a Mini Cooper would be relatively (their’s that word again), OK and undamaging.  So, why don’t we redo the safety rules, giving light weight cars a whole catagory of their own.  This would greatly lessen the bureaucracy that the innovators in transportation have to wade through, thus leading to more fuel efficient cars SOONER.  Make sense?

True, for awhile, until all the SUV’s in the world are retired, it will be a little hairy out there.  But, hey, this state of affairs will be temporary, and the carnage can’t be any worse than Iraq, can it?  And the long range benefits to the death and destruction would be FAR more tangible!