U.S. May Set Greenhouse Gas Standard for Cars

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/23/AR2009022302575.html?hpid=topnews

U.S. May Set Greenhouse Gas Standard for Cars

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 24, 2009; Page A02

The Obama administration is considering establishing national rules for regulating greenhouse gas emissions for automobiles, according to White House officials, a move backed by both auto manufacturers and some environmentalists.

For weeks, administration officials have been meeting with car companies as well as green groups and representatives from California -- which is awaiting word on whether it will receive a federal waiver to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles -- to try to broker a deal on the issue. On Sunday, Carol M. Browner, assistant to the president for energy and climate, said she and others backed the idea of a single standard for cars and trucks.

"The hope across the administration is that we can have a unified national policy when it comes to cleaner vehicles," Browner said at the Western Governors' Association meeting in Washington.

Yesterday, a White House official, who asked not to be identified because the policy has yet to be finalized, said Browner's comments did not mean the administration was seeking to usurp Congress's role in regulating carbon dioxide and other emissions linked to global warming.

…

[nomorenomore08]

1. If I'm not mistaken, the technology already exists to double or triple the fuel efficiency

of most of our vehicles. The auto industry just needs more of a fire lit under its ass to do so.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Well…

It depends on what you mean by "the technology already exists…"

Making much smaller & lighter cars with smaller engines makes a great deal of difference.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,559884,00.html

06/16/2008

GM, Ford Look to Euro Divisions for Small Cars

With fuel prices at over $4 a gallon, sales of gas-guzzling American SUVs and trucks are tanking. Now Ford and General Motors are looking to their European divisions for more efficient, smaller cars that can be quickly produced for the suddenly fuel-efficiency conscious American market.

German carmaker Opel, owned by American automobile giant General Motors, as well as the European division of Ford could both profit from the current crisis at their mothership companies across the big pond. GM and Ford have been hit hard by falling sales of gas-guzzling pickup trucks and SUVs. With drivers having to pay an average of over $4 per gallon, sales of larger cars have slowed to a trickle, blindsiding US automakers, who have focused for years on the formerly lucrative truck and SUV market. Unable to quickly retool to develop their own fuel-efficient models, GM and Ford are both reviewing their units in Europe -- where compact and subcompact models are far more prevalent -- for possible models that could be produced for the American market.

Of course, with the euro as strong as it is against the dollar, the cars would have to be manufactured at US plants. If exported to the US from Europe, they would be immediate money losers. Still, the European R&D departments could profit from the additional work. It wouldn't be unprecedented for US automakers to introduce European-designed models in the US. GM already manufactures the Opel Astra in the United States under its Saturn brand.

The future of SUVs in the States is more uncertain than it's ever been before. Lately, carmakers are even being forced to give heavy discounts just to move somewhat more energy-efficient hybrid SUVs. GM is even considering selling off Hummer, its übermacho brand.

dsl/spiegel

So, they're currently selling more efficient cars in Europe, without any fancy new technology. A typical car wastes a lot of energy.


There's a lot of potential efficiency to be gained is the engine compartment:
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/FEG/tech_engine_more.shtml

There's some more to be gained in the transmission:
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/FEG/tech_transmission.shtml


Take all of that to the extreme (smaller, lighter, more aerodynamic, smaller engine…) and you get something like this:
http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/gw/vw1litre.htm



(It's a VW car which got 100km/l 282mpg)


To really increase efficiency dramatically though, without this sort of radical body redesign, you're going to need to look to a different sort of power technology (like an http://www.fueleconomy.gov/FEG/evtech.shtml">electric vehicle, or a http://www.fueleconomy.gov/FEG/fuelcell.shtml">fuel-cell vehicle, which is essentially an electric vehicle that you recharge by filling a fuel tank, rather recharging a battery.)