alternative fuel Archives - Page 7 of 8

New Gas Mileage Standard:
54.5 MPG by 2025

November 16, 2011 by mpg-o-editor

Hold onto your hats. The United States Department of Transportation (DOT) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have finally pulled the curtain on their proposed rule for the Obama Administration’s new gas mileage standard. An average of 54.5 miles per gallon (MPG) by 2025 may seem like a huge leap in a short time, but the numbers are not what they appear.

The 54.5 MPG figure is the EPA number for passenger vehicles, not what you’ll see on the window sticker. It’s a fudge factory powered by greenhouse gas emissions. The automakers will be able to use a range of technology incentives in one place to offset their numbers in another, including flex fuel, hybrid, and electric power trains. In real world terms, we might expect a sticker average of 40 MPG for cars that run on liquid fuel. That’s not all that extraordinary, considering all the cars with gas mileage ratings around 40 MPG highway that we can buy today.

And they wonder why so many Americans are so skeptical of what goes on in Washington.

MPGomatic Supports The Low Volume Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Act of 2011

October 27, 2011 by mpg-o-editor

With just a few days until the 2011 SEMA show, a group of our esteemed elected officials have introduced “The Low Volume Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Act” (H.R. 3274) – a bipartisan bill that is intended to enable custom car manufacturers to build and market a range of specialty vehicles on a national level.

The bill was introduced by Congressman John Campbell (R-CA). It directs the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to “establish a regulatory structure to facilitate the production of these cars.” Co-sponsors of the bill include Rep. John Barrow (D-GA), Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL), Rep. Don Manzullo (R-IL), Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA).

How to Get an MPGomatic Sticker

April 12, 2012October 23, 2011 by mpg-o-editor

Hey MPGomatic Fanatics! The Free MPGomatic Sticker giveaway has come and gone. We may offer them for free again in the future. In the meantime, we’re selling a limited number of MPGomatic stickers. You can buy one, two, or three stickers at a time. If you order three stickers, we’ll throw in a bonus sticker … Read more

How Does Ethanol Affect Gas Mileage?

June 27, 2015August 11, 2011 by mpg-o-editor

You don’t have to go far to hear folks complaining about how the current level of ethanol content in unleaded gasoline has affected the gas mileage in their vehicles. Today’s gasoline contains approximately ten percent ethanol, for the most part, and is referred to as E10. Finding “ethanol-free” gasoline at a common service station has become increasingly rare, at best.

Ethanol contains approximately 33 percent less energy than gasoline. If you were to run 100 percent ethanol (E100) in your vehicle, you’d expect to take a 33% hit to gas mileage.* (Theoretically, since you can’t legally run 100% ethanol.) With E10, it’s a 3.33% penalty. Seeing that you can’t buy E0, there’s not much you can do about it.

At some point, we hope to perform dyno and real-world tests to document the drop in gas mileage. With “pure” pump gas nearly impossible to find nearby, we may need to buy expensive street-legal racing fuel.

2011 Chevrolet Volt Review

July 15, 2011June 3, 2011 by mpg-o-editor

MPG-o-Matic 2011 Chevrolet Volt Review Summary: The 2011 Chevrolet Volt is both futuristic and familiar, with a range-extended Voltec drivetrain designed to provide efficiency, as well as flexibility. Top off the battery overnight and you’ll have approximately 40 miles of pure electric range in the morning. If you should exceed the Volt’s range before recharging, a fuel-efficient gasoline-powered engine will kick in to provide electricity to power the electric motor. Welcome to the future.