The World of Efficient Cars | Green Energy News

November 27, 2005 – Vol.10 No.36

THE WORLD OF EFFICIENT CARS.

Generally speaking, there are two markets for automobiles: the U.S. and the rest of the world.

Outside U.S. borders a bevy of fuel efficient cars is available from small engined micro-cars to full-sized diesels. Some are brands or models you may never have heard of.

There are also cars that are sold in both markets, or say a Mazda3 or a BMW 5-series, that are available elsewhere in the world with engine choices - smaller or diesel - that are not available in the U.S.

Further, to add insult to financial injury to American drivers thirsting for better fuel economy, some models that could be considered American-made (and may very well be) are available overseas with more fuel efficient engines. For instance DaimlerChrysler’s Dodge and Chrysler minivans are available outside the U.S. with clean diesels that get nearly 30 miles per gallon.

Why aren’t all cars world cars?

Maybe Americans really do want big, powerful, fast vehicles to drive the vast reaches of the country. (Yet Europeans seem to drive faster than we do and many Americans spend many of their driving hours stopped in traffic.)

Maybe pollution and collision standards are too lax overseas. (Yet the European Union and Japan have strict, only different, standards. They’re possibly stronger in some areas.)

But, the real reason why Americans can’t get what the world gets may be pure and planned protectionism, or perhaps the result of safety and environmental regulations geared towards U.S. manufacturers that became, in effect, protectionist over time.

Back in the 70’s and 80’s imported cars began eating away at the U.S. Big Three share of their home market. Their higher costs meant they couldn’t build small cars at home with the kind of profits they were expecting. But if a small car from Japan wouldn’t meet crash tests or emissions standards it couldn’t be sold here. The Big Three could hold off the imports for a while longer.

Yet things have changed since then. DaimlerChrysler, no longer Chrysler Corporation, is as much German as it is American. GM and Ford are in the dumps, in part because of their refusal to sell more fuel efficient cars. And, foreign-flagged manufacturers build fuel-efficient cars here at a profit.

It’s probably time for laws that keep fuel-efficient imports out to be revised. If GM and Ford could sell more of the cars here that they make overseas couldn’t they increase their market share and profits too?

40MPG.org, an offshoot of the Civil Society Institute (CSI), thinks Americans should be able to buy the same fuel-efficient cars the rest the world can. In a survey of 1030 adults completed by Opinion Research Corporation for CSI, nearly 90 percent said they wanted access to the best of the fuel efficient cars available outside the U.S.

In its research the group found 86 models that achieved 40 miles per gallon or better (and of those 65 percent were sold by companies operating in both markets), 129 models that got better than 35 miles per gallon, and 34 models that got better than 50 miles per gallon in combined cycle driving. (At the time of the survey only two vehicles sold in the U.S. got better than 50 miles per gallon.)

The group notes that most of the 34 vehicles that get better than 50 miles per gallon are diesels, which have higher emissions than gasoline engines. But, diesel emissions might be headed south in 2006 when low-sulfur diesel fuel is available in the U.S.

(However, while diesel cars are available in most of the U.S., California and a handful of other states using stricter California emission standards have effectively outlawed the sale of new diesel cars, for now.)

Is it time for more imports? 40MPG wants the federal government to act.

For the study, and others completed by 40 MPG.org visit http://www.40mpg.org/ .