Why Does the USA Lag the Rest of the World in Fuel Economy?
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The problems of the US auto manufacturing industry have been widely reported in recent weeks.The big surprise is that to many, this actually came as a surprise.
But is it really surprising that the industry is in a state of collapse considering they continue to make cars that are increasingly irrelevant to the needs of the rest of the world?
Is this progress, or is it too little too late?
According to a recent report the fleet average for Europe was 34.4 mpg in 2007. Putting Europeans practically 14 years ahead of the game. Other major auto markets are similarly ahead.
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Price, or something else?
Of course, its been often repeated that the reason for this is price. If fuel is cheap, why care about how much you use. Why invest in new technology, and why look for smarter solutions?
A forum debate on this topic last year provides some insight into why many US consumers believe that they need inefficient vehicles, which is perhaps the ultimate reason why the US auto industry has fallen so far behind?
The following arguments were put forward by people in order to defend the use of large gas guzzling vehicles in the US as opposed to the smaller more efficient cars used by most of the rest of the world.
“We have bigger distances to travel in the US, therefore we need bigger cars with bigger engines so they last.”
The US is BIG, I agree. However surely this increases the need for better fuel consumption as the distances travelled are greater. Try as I might, I can’t find any correlation between the size of vehicle and its ability to travel long distances. Modern manufacturing techniques also mean that the engine is often the last part of the car to actually wear out.
“Cars in the US are safer than those in Europe, and the bigger my car is the safer I am.”
This is a fallacy. Although the US led the way in the 1960’s in increasing safety, they are currently well behind many other countries in terms of auto safety. In fact, if you compare improvements in road safety between the UK and the US between 1979 and 2002 ,the UK had achieved a drop of 46% whereas the US had only achieved a 16.2% reduction in road deaths.
As for vehicle size and safety, a 2003 study by the US Transportation Board reveals that the popular view that SUV’s and Pickups are safer is in fact false. The study also points out that the size, and more importantly, the weight of the vehicle has a significantly smaller effect on crash safety than the overall engineering quality. The average weight of a car in Europe is 1175 kg whereas in the US it is 2000 kg.
Of course if you crash a 2 tonne car into 1.2 tonne car the larger one has greater energy, and therefore is likely to cause more damage than if the reverse was true. However, this isn’t actually an argument for having larger heavier cars, but an argument for reducing weights across the board in order to make everyone safer.
“I need a huge pickup truck or SUV to carry all of my kids and my shopping.”
This argument is often linked to the supposed safety benefits of a large vehicle which we have seen to be false. It is also a practical issue. However, all over the world large families happily exist without the need to have massive vehicles in order to transport them all (children are small, after all). A modest size family car is easily capable of carrying two adults and three children along with a week or so of groceries - safely. Really, it can be done!
For most people the need to transport large or awkward objects is not part of their daily lives. It seems hard to justify using a large pickup weighing several tonnes in order to have the option of transporting a large load if the need arises. Why not make use of delivery services or roof racks?
“Cars in the US have to meet emissions standards that don’t apply to Europe. These standards prevent us from getting good fuel efficiency but keep our air clean.”
Vehicle emission standards is a complicated issue. Comparisons are difficult, because an emission standard in two countries may be based on two different test cycles and may vary in other respects. It is true that European emissions standards for diesel engines are less stringent than those in the US for oxides or nitrogen and particulates. However, the introduction of low sulphur diesel in Europe (still not widely available in the US) has led to the use of particle filters and other technology that all but eliminates these emissions.
California has the strictest emissions standards in the US. It is also home to the most polluted city in the country, Los Angeles. Surely, burning less fuel in the first place helps reduce pollution overall, particularly since this is the key to reducing CO2 emissions (something which several European countries place limits on in the form of additional vehicle taxes).
So is the United States a special case?
It does seem that the current difficulties faced by the US auto industry may be the catalyst for change, and the recent high fuel prices in the US may have led to a change in the way most North Americans view fuel efficiency. But US consumers still need to realise that change is possible, that it comes without penalty, and that it is necessary. Only then will the political will exist to make rapid changes.
Oil will run out, that is certain. Why not come to terms with that fact and start trying to find ways to conserve it as soon as possible? The US is not a special case in that respect. Oil will run out for all of us.
Image credt: Sam Felder at Flickr.com under Creative Commons license
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