The house has passed a more responsible fuel economy package. Now both the senate reps and the house reps go into conference to hammer out a compromise. What comes out of comittee is what we'll end up with. Most likely a split the difference package that will include key items of both and compromised numbers:

My bets:

* Car and truck figures stay separate.

* Instead of 35 mpg for cars and trucks combined by 2020, 35 mpg for cars & 30 for trucks by 2020.

* Continue to classify vehicles like the PT Cruiser, HHR, and Magnum as "trucks".

* and finally, some type of item such as using EPA's "highway" numbers, tax or mileage credits for exceeding or reaching goals early, or the ability to pass fines or taxes onto consumers.... some type of compromise.

 

No matter what way you slice it....this "deal" is going to benefit the foreign automakers. Even when GM produces the Chevrolet Volt (in whatever combination they chose to make it) they will still be at a disadvantage.

It's times like this I wish GM would make each brand just that a "brand" instead of one entire company.

Also, I think that it would be asinine for the new bill to not encourage investment in E-85 pumps and help fund some of those, as well as a hydrogen distribution system for 2020-2025 since that is where we are headed.

 

Well the domestic brands do have time and seperating the cars and light trucks would help tremendously.

These CAFE requirements hurt the Titan and Tundra just as much as the Silverado, Ram and F150 as none of them are ready for this now. Yet the health of Ford and the financial strain on Ford and GM do put them at a disadvantage to Toyota or Honda.
This should continue the trend back to cars as the trucks have a longer way to go. Domestic brands especially should now lay out future plans to dump the lions share of the development costs on fuel efficiency and cars over trucks.

GM should push for Flex fuel trucks be partially exempt as they can use E85 and give them a break on the MPG. Probably not gonna happen but worth the argument.

Wonder what becomes of GM RWD platforms after this? 32 mpg by 2022 is quite a bit better than 35 mpg by 2018. There will be a varient of the Volt for every brand.

 

I gotta disagree with part of what you posted, Josh. Believe it or not, our automakers here in the US are actually experts in getting the most power out of an engine with the best fuel economy.

Take the current LS2 Corvette. It produces, what? 405 horsepower? Has 8 cylinders? It's fuel economy rating is 18/28 mpg. Yet an Infinity G35 coupe with barely 215 horsepower & a 6 cylinder engine gets 19 & 26. Even if you throw weight into the equasion, the 3500 pound, 215 horse coupe gets less mileage than our 3700 pound 300 horse, 8 cylinder Impala SS.

Trucks.

Nissan's Titan 2wd 5.6 V8 gets an epa rating of 14 & 18 mpg and 305 horsepower (379 torque). Toyota's Tundra gets a 240 horse with 315 torque and also 14 & 18 mpg. Dodge's Hemi, known as perhaps the worse of the American V8s as far as fuel economy has 345 horsepower, a 375 torque rating and has an epa rating of 13/18.

As far as E85, to me the idea of using food for fuel is just assinine. First, we use about 20,000,000 barrels of oil per day. Even if we sacrifice every grain of corn we grow here in the US and start chewing shrubs for dinner, the amount of fuel we'd get from corn still wouldn't be anywhere near a drop in the bucket and would do diddly in decreasing our reliance on oil. What it WILL do is increase our consumption of more expensive fuel (E85 burns at a faster rate than straight gasoline) while at the same time getting farmers off of government subsidies by finding a practical use for excess production. Trouble is, one bad year of weather and we have problems. Also consider if a farmer has a choice between selling their crop to a market for food or getting more money selling it for fuel, which would he probally do?

I do agree with you that Hydrogen (the most abundant substance in the universe) is a great alternative fuel, but I also believe that Natural Gas is even more perfect. Like Hydrogen, it leaves no harmful gasses (we even use it in our homes), packs as quite a bit of energy, is easy to adapt engines to run on the stuff (most all California municipal vehicles & busses run on natural gas), and we likely have enough to subsitute over a third of our automotive usage over to NPG.

To a large degree, I don't think our automakers get enough credit in the area of fuel economy. Although all have been negligent in being competitive in the car arena, I do have to give kudos to them in making great fuel efficient engines. Not just GM, but also Ford and Chrysler all have V8s that produce lots of power, yet get the fuel mileage of the V6s we see in imports.

I actually believe that import brands will have a far more difficult time meeting new fuel economy standards than our makers will.

Ever compare the mileage of a supercharged Cadillac Northstar and a similar horsepower BMW or Mercedes? Not pretty.

 

I thought the Infinity G35 coupe had around 285-300hp like the 350Z?

 

but what about that mpg debacle the aveo

 

It does. And fairly short gearing, which hurts hwy economy numbers.
SAE numbers are something like 275/298 for the auto/manual models.

The new G37 is 330.

 

Potentially, I see this as making GM/Ford/Chrysler more competitive globally, since smaller and/or more efficient cars will have a wider market.

 

I don't want cars using NG because then cars will be competing with homes for fuel and heating a home is more important than cheap fuel for a car in winter. Winter heating bills can be bad enough as is.

Plus peak Natural gas is only like 10-15 years behind peak oil so we really are not solving any problems. I'd love it if by 2020 you could get municipal hydrogen though.

GM has better engines for the Aveo in Europe and Asia. They just choose not to use then in the USA. 1.4L or 1.2L DI Ecotec would be awesome.

 

This could get interesting...

 

I agree with Z28x on this one. Right now there's no immediate substitute for NG which heat a large percentage of homes. There's a way to really put a cramp on people.

Municipal Hydrogen... I have a feeling I'm going to see a lot of changes in my next 60-70years (knock on wood) here on this earth.

 

It's fundamentally dishonest to call those vehicles trucks and it calls into question the sincerity of the entire effort to improve fuel consumption requirements.

 

Hmmm, I wonder if this might help persuade GM into offering more "wagon" styled vehicles?

I am patiently waiting for a large diesel Impala/Caprice V8 diesel