• Cars

    Why Can't Our Cars Get Better Mileage?

    By Posted on 7.3.2008 27 Comments

    In April, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation proposed new CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standards that would increase the average efficiency of passenger cars and light trucks by 4.5 percent per year from 2011 to 2015. A lot of people wondered why the federal government wasn't aiming higher.

    7.4.2008 at 04:52pm - Comment by GettingReal

    I read Gary Perkin's post above - While I agree that hydrogen power may be around the corner, I do not believe that vehicles today have the ability run on water. Like many people, I keep stumbling across all these websites about running cars on water. Everywhere you look you will find one or more ads about the topic - seems to me like the company is competing with itself to make $47.97. Out of curiosity, I spoke to my mechanic at BMW and I asked him if he had seen these ads and if so what he thought about them. He told me that even if it were possible to extract hydrogen from water to fuel a vehicle today, the existing mechanics of a vehicle were not designed to work with water. Point blank - it would severely damage the vehicle and would cost thousands of dollars worth of damage. I drive a 2007 BMW X5 and there is no way I would ever put water in my gas tank, nor would I ever make a change to my vehicle to let me put it any place else. If anyone is interested, my mechanic did say that there is a product called Envirochip that they have been putting on some of their other customers’ vehicles. According to them, the chip has allows them to use 85 octane gas without having to add fuel additives. As we all know, that is about a $0.20 savings per gallon. So, I did my homework and found where to buy one, and now I am using regular gas in my car (without problems) and am I saving money each time I fuel up, plus I’m getting better mileage.



Download Our iPhone App

Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone with full articles, images and offline viewing



Follow Us On Twitter

Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed



Become a Fan On Facebook

Share links with friends, comment on stories and more


December 2009: Best of What's New

In our December issue, Popular Science names the 100 best innovations of the year: bombproof wallpaper, self-parking cars, the fastest helicopter, and 97 more. Plus inventor profiles and videos.

Check out the best of what's new here.

Popular Science Photo Pool


Share your photos in the Pop Sci pool at www.flickr.com!
tags_sprite.png
POP_embeddedForm_cover_May09.jpg