The US Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy produced an important consumer guide to the fuel economy performance of cars in the US market earlier this week. (www.fueleconomy.gov).
Each car in the survey is assessed in city and highway driving scenarios, and the results are based on underlying assumptions about distances travelled in each mode on average each year, and fuel costs around the time of printing the guide. Because individuals’ own in-use fuel economy may differ from these assumptions, consumers can also use guide to get an estimate of the fuel economy of their own vehicle by going on line and feeding in their details so that they can better reflect how and where they drive.

When it comes to the 'winners' in this fuel economy beauty contest, Green Car Congress reports that “the Prius is the top fuel economy leader, with EPA ratings of 51/48 mpg city/highway. The Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan hybrid sedans come in second, at 41/36, followed by the Honda Civic Hybrid; Honda Insight; Lexus HS250h; Nissan Altima Hybrid; Ford Escape, Mazda Tribute, Mercury Mariner Hybrid; smart fortwo Cabriolet and Coupe; Toyota Camry Hybrid; and Lexus RX450h hybrid.” (www.greencarcongress.com)

This is a really interesting document, and well worth a look.

The New York Times online published an interesting piece on likely patterns of future global energy demand yesterday. In the piece (reproduced below) it’s author Jad Mouawad makes the point that the bulk of the growth in demand for oil will come from the emerging markets in the near future, and not from the OECD. This reflects in part the likely growth in the car fleet which we can expect to see in those nations too. This analysis supports the 50by50 case, that there is an urgent need to focus on fuel efficiency in non-OECD countries. Read more from us here....

http://50by50live.fiacommunications.com/Documents/Publications/50BY50_report.pdf)about

and read the original NY Times Online piece here..........

October 13, 2009, 11:28 am
Oil Demand in Industrialized Nations Peaked in 2005, Researchers Say
By Jad Mouawad
After falling for two years, global oil demand is expected to grow in 2010,
once the economy kicks back to life. But oil consumption in developed
nations — including the United States, Europe and Japan — probably reached
a high point in 2005, well before the current downturn, and consumption has
been falling since, according to IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates,
a consulting firm.
Efficiency gains in the transportation sector are among the reasons that
oil demand in O.E.C.D. countries is unlikely to ever be as high as they
were in 2005.Thanks to efficiency gains in the transportation sector, aging populations and the growth in renewable fuels and electric vehicles, demand was unlikely to return to its peak level, the Cambridge Energy researchers
noted.
Oil demand from the 30 countries that make up the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development represents 54 percent of the world’s oil
demand.
The transportation sector in these countries makes up most of their oil
consumption.
“Petroleum for transportation has been the single driving force behind
O.E.C.D. oil demand for the past two decades,” said Aaron Brady, director
for global oil at Cambridge Energy. “After the oil crisis of the early
1980s, the nontransportation sector turned to readily available substitutes
like coal, gas or nuclear power,” Mr. Brady said. “Now we are seeing the
tempering of the last significant driver of oil demand in developed
countries — petroleum for transportation.”
If correct, this suggested that future growth in demand will be driven
almost exclusively by emerging markets, which have already been the main
engines of growth in recent years.
The researchers expected global oil consumption to increase to 89.1 million
barrels a day in 2014, compared with 83.8 million barrels in 2009. The bulk
of that growth, or 4.4 million barrels a day, will come from countries
outside of the O.E.C.D.
China alone was expected to account for 1.6 million barrels a day of
cumulative growth.
Demand from developed nations will increase by only 900,000 barrels a day
by 2014, according to Cambridge Energy. From 2005 to 2009, O.E.C.D. demand
dropped by 3.7 million barrels a day.
This doesn’t mean that oil will vanish from developed economies. Instead,
oil consumption will remain flat and decline only modestly through 2030.
“Although the potential for demand growth has diminished, so has the
potential, at least in the short- to medium-term, for large-scale
substitution away from petroleum,” Mr. Brady said.

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This is a completely new blog which will aim to point out useful issues and ideas for anyone with an interest in fuel economy.

I'm pretty new to blogging though, so I hope it is worth reading.......

Why not email me at s.watson@50by50campaign.org with your thoughts?