Quote:
Originally Posted by MetroMPG
The point of the piece isn't to rail against stalled fuel economy ratings, it was to point out that the pace of technological change in the auto industry (for squeezing ever more power from about the same amount of fuel) has been dramatically rapid.
The implication is that they should be able to deliver dramatic fuel efficiency results, should they chose to go after it with equal zeal.
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This is a very misleading graph. First of all there is absolutely no correlation between peak HP and and fuel economy at low rpm/low load. Secondly, the graph completely ignores the increasing weight of cars over the years. Even a VW Jetta weighs more than 3000lb and cars need the extra HP just to get out of their own way. Most large sedans weight around 4000lb, more than they ever did in the late 60s to early 70s.
This is not an excuse for stalled fleet wide fuel economy but the connection to increasing peak HP is completely useless.