[skyl4rk]

I have an idea for a product that should make financial sense for every driver. The product is designed for small sedans at this point (I am working on fitting it to a Nissan Versa, but it should work on similar sized sedans). It should work for most passenger vehicles with some additional design and testing. The product will improve fuel efficiency by 5% to 15%. For small sedans, it will lengthen the vehicle to about 20 feet long. It requires a trailer hitch receiver. It provides additional storage area, although only light materials should be transported in the product.

At $4 per gallon, and 30mpg EPA, this product should pay for itself in under 20,000 miles. That is assuming a price of $250 which seems like it should be feasible from a production point of view. I would hope the product would last for the life of the vehicle, although that remains to be seen. If it lasted for 200,000 miles, it would have saved over $2,500 in fuel savings over the life of the vehicle.

You can probably guess what this product is. It is a cargo box that fits onto the trailer hitch receiver, that is shaped in an aerodynamic way. There is more to it, lights, license plate holder, watertight seal, locks. But that is the concept. I think it could be built and sold for $250.

I have not built a version 2 product yet so I need to verify all of this. But based on the first version, I think that the above description is correct and even conservative, there may be a bigger FE benefit.