Quote:
Originally Posted by MetroMPG
Yup. I see a few things reducing "civilian" interest in ecomodding/hypermiling:
1) Lower gas prices everywhere.
2) When the forum started, people in North America had precious few options for efficient, new non-hybrid cars. But since then, E.G. the subcompact market exploded from a couple of choices (Yaris, Aveo) to a veritable smorgasbord today (non-North American members, should feel free to laugh at that statement).
Not to mention the availability of hybrids & EV's.
Although the traditionally most efficient subcompact ICE segment has probably peaked and is now shrinking as people shift to "crossovers" & small SUV's.
3) CAFE fuel economy regs are driving up efficiency of ALL passenger vehicle classes. Look how much the average U.S. new vehicle MPG has improved since the forum launched!
Vehicle Fuel Economy | UMTRI - University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute |
1) This is just temporary. Fuel prices will go back up. Saudi Arabia's high production rate is keeping oil prices down, but it's hurting their finances too. They've been running large deficits and I can't see them doing that long term... think months not years.
2) Small cars are a tricky market. There are thin margins there because very few people are willing to pay large amounts of money for a small, basic car. As higher CAFE standards require more expensive technologies to be used to meet them and more mandatory safety gear is required (TPMS, backup cameras, automatic collision avoidance) I can see many small cars getting priced out of the market.
3) Beware graphs that don't start at zero. :P That looks like a nearly tenfold increase, but is really showing about a 25% improvement. Still significant, but not as striking as that chart first appears.