Why Is It That We Cannot Develop Fuel-Efficient Vehicles?
When purchasing a new car or truck, gas economy was a key point for at least one-third of American car buyers. Back in 1992 previously General Motors built a vehicle that got 100 miles to the gallon – and all these years later on one of people’s major concerns on top of global warming and pollution is dependence on foreign oil. Another vehicle, the GM TPC, which looked a lot like the Geo Metro, weighed only 1000 pounds and could get 75 miles per gallon. However, to be able to meet American safety regulations, the 3-cylinder vehicle required reinforcement weighing 200 pounds, which ended in further development being discarded.
It really is shocking that GM had this car built and discontinued, but they had other prototypes that ended the same way. Some of these were the 1982 GM Lean Machine which made 80 miles per gallon, and the GM Ultralite which made 100 mpg. As soon as Honda in 1992 reached 50 mpg with the Civic VX, GM was selling cars that got 20 mpg, while in the background they had vehicles capable of 100 mpg. If cars that were able to get 100 miles per gallon had already been developed way back then, why is it that such cars are not being sold today?
Why are conventional vehicles sold in the US, while at the same time, the same suppliers are selling different vehicles far away in other countries? For quite some time cars that get over 70 miles per gallon have been sold in Japan and Europe. The Lupo, a Volkswagen, is a great instance of a car that gets 78 MPG, but hasn’t ever been sold in the US. In 2007, Honda in the united states launched the FIT, in other regions known as the Jazz. In Japan the Jazz models include one with a scaled-down engine, plus there are ways to improve fuel consumption, but with the Fit in the US not even the option of a smaller engine is offered.
In The United States the manufacturers say they have to build big cars mainly because that is what the American public wants. It’s obvious that manufacturers don’t generate a lot of money selling a small 2-person commuter vehicle, but they certainly do selling big SUVs. American folks have been brainwashed with ads to believe that they just simply must have the latest and largest bundu basher. Fuel-saving alternatives from the big companies are uncommon, so it’s pretty easy to deduce where their preferences lay. The leader in fuel economy may have been General Motors, but they opt to often be the leader in SUVs instead. Americans weren’t denied only by GM, but also by the rest of the manufacturers who have developed fuel-efficient cars.
We live in a community that has fought wars over oil, that has been polluted, and car makers have never even given the choice to people in this country of fuel-efficient cars. Ask yourself how many people who were never given the choice would have been excited to have a car that was fuel-efficient? Might it be time to get access to those abandoned designs and, again, start building those vehicles that were once built a long time ago?
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