US vehicles to slim down, become more efficient (this will include turbocharged & supercharged ICEs)

[JohnWxy]

http://www.wral.com/lifestyles/story/3513671/


Batchelder's Mini is a lightweight subcompact, yet its interior is luxurious. Its 1.6-liter, four-cylinder engine gets him 27 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving, yet its suspension is stiff for handling and the supercharged motor makes the tiny car very fast.
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Right now, engineers at all automakers are working extra hours trying to squeeze as much gas mileage as they can out of the internal combustion engine.
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Also coming soon are four-cylinder engines that perform like six-cylinders, and sixes that perform as V-8s, boosted by either turbocharging or supercharging.

There's also more efficient automatic transmissions out or in the works, with some having as many as eight speeds. Experts expect biofuels like ethanol to become more prevalent, and starting to hit the market already are high-mileage diesels and direct fuel injection gasoline engines that are far more efficient than current gasoline motors.
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Before we move over to plug-in hybrids and all electric cars we will have to get more mileage out of the ICE cars just to keep down the price of gas until we can get a substantial number of plug-ins and electrics on the road. These smaller lighter turbocharged or supercharged engines will offer improved gas consumption for those who can't afford hybrids and will help get us started reducing our consumption of gasoline. Much can be done with technology that is available right now. making cars lighter and with smaller supercharged or turbocharged engines will help in the transition.

[kristopher]

1. Myopic vision

We don't need "transition" vehicles. What you are putting out is the mantra of the "business as usual" crowd who don't give a shit about climate change.
Both Gore and Obama have said "off oil in 10 years".

[DCKit]

2. C'mon already. The "all or nothing" approach gets U.S. nowhere.

However, I have to admit I'm weary of all the excuses - especially those about why an all electric car is *still*, after all this time, too difficult to build, too expensive to sell and unmarketable to a public that drives less than 30 miles/day on average. Not to mention the fact that we've had the heads-up for 34 years already and mileage actually decreased across the fleet after 1982.

[happyslug]

3. People will NOT give up their lifestyles overnight

People will look for "solutions" that does NOT include a radical rethought of how they get to and from work. That is why I have always said that we are entering a Transitional period, a period where people will try to save their suburban lifestyles. These cars are part of the solution. '

Now I have called this transitional period the "Moped Generation" for I foresee many suburbanites trying to keep their suburban homes by switching to a fuel efficient moped (Which can get 90-100 mpg TODAY). This will permit people to hold onto their homes, and the view of what they want their lifestyle to be. Now people who are NOT yet committed to that dream (i.e. do NOT have a home with a Mortgage to pay off) will switch to a post oil lifestyle quicker then people who have a suburban home. Such non home owners have nothing to lose so the switch will be easy for them, but for people who have a family and a home, the switch will be painful, and one way to minimize that pain is to keep their home but switch from a SUV to a Moped (Witch from a 10 mpg vehicle to a 100 mpg Vehicle).

Please note I see this as only a transitional period, as these people who are caught in their suburban homes age, they will also give up their suburban homes (Either by selling them or by dieing of old age and their children NOT wanting to live in them). Like a lot of old rural homes abandoned in the 1930s through the 1960s as farm mechanized and needed less workers, these suburban homes will be abandoned and left to rot, but the suburbanite int them today will stay in them as long as they can for that is how they believe they should live and until such a lifestyle becomes impossible such suburbanites will stay in their homes cutting whatever is needed to keep that home habitable.

Here is a paper I did many years ago on the History of the Suburbs, It needs re-written but I have not had time. The paper goes into how suburbs came to be AND what I expect to happen to them in the future:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=266x203