Today’s NYTimes’ Green Inc. blog had an entry of note that has some relation to topics we’ve started to talk about here. The piece says that while the automaker’s noble journey back to Washington D.C. in hybrid cars from their fleets may look an attempt to go green, in reality, those cars are far from fuel efficient.
Robert Nardelli of Chrysler drove his company’s Aspen Hybrid S.U.V., which gets 22 miles per gallon on the highway and 20 in the city. Ford’s Alan Mulally drove an Escape Hybrid S.U.V. — 31 m.p.g. on the highway and 34 in the city. And Rick Wagoner of General Motors drove a Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid Sedan. His was the most efficient on the highway, averaging 34 m.p.g., but only 26 in the city.
What’s wrong with this picture? For starters, although these vehicles may be hybrids, by any real-world standard they are not particularly fuel-efficient. Hybrid technology can only do so much to improve the gas mileage of a huge, heavy, over-powered car.
A reality check for those who would like to compare: The Toyota Prius — a hybrid — averages 48 m.p.g. in the city and 45 on the highway. Here in Italy, the popular and highly praised Fiat Grande Punto (not a hybrid) can get nearly twice the gas mileage of Mr. Nardelli’s car — 41.5 m.p.g. in the city, and 56.5 on the highway, depending on engine size.
One thing Friedman (on pages 14 through 17) has noted, is that the United States has long settled into a plateau when it comes to fuel efficiency. Ever since President Carter’s energy initiatives (which from 1975 – 1985 ensured that American passenger vehicle mileage went from 13.5 miles per gallon to 27.5 and light trucks from 11.6 to 19.5), the country’s presidents have done very little to increase standards, let alone maintain them.
It was President Reagan who turned the environmental movement into a polarizing and partisan issue, by actually lowering the standards and slashing budgets of most of Carter’s alternative energy programs. He was known to be against environmental regulation which began a series of freezes in progress which continued through the Republican Congress majority during the Clinton administration and even further into the current Bush administration.
With no mandated improvement in fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles, hybrid cars will stay middling in the ranges listed above and could have little to no impact. Friedman has proposed that to make the conversion, older oil-based technologies should be taxed to make them more expensive than alternatives, and there should be incentives provided for those who convert to new fuel-efficient technology, whether in the auto industry or other businesses. President-elect Barack Obama has expressed that something like this will be a priority in coming months.
Without a push in this direction, this ‘gesture’ by the three automakers to drive into DC with hybrids is little more than a parade to get money.