US gas prices near 6 year lows: guess what that means for the forum! (Crickets)

[darcane]

Originally Posted by Fingie

Thats BS here in finland. When gas got cheaper, they raised the gasoline taxing....

At this rate, UAPC will run on homebrewed stuff

My state has the same mindset. Washington has the second highest gasoline tax behind Pennsylvania. And ours is increasing while Pennsylvania's is decreasing (theirs is calculated off of fuel prices annually).

If it drops some more, I could be paying 50% tax on gasoline by summer.

[freebeard]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

I assume this forum will generally become less relevant as vehicles shift away from ICE and gain efficiency.

Oh, noes! Which one? The Lounge or Ecomodder as a whole?

Surely, there should always be a place for Zepplin-esque tricycles from the 1930s?

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Fingie

At this rate, UAPC will run on homebrewed stuff

Homebrewed vodka often reaches the 80% ethanol content, which is already enought to be used as an automobile fuel

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

I assume this forum will generally become less relevant as vehicles shift away from ICE and gain efficiency.

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!



http://www.umtri.umich.edu/our-focus...e-fuel-economy

[Vman455]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

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).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_PL8ouEAus

You used it correctly, but I couldn't help myself.

[MobilOne]

RE: futures market in gasoline. Yes, there is a futures market in gasoline. To play in it, you'd best have deep pockets. To paraphrase an old Wall Street joke: "How to leave the futures market with a million dollars? Well, first you start with ten million."

[darcane]

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.

[j12piprius]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

I assume this forum will generally become less relevant as vehicles shift away from ICE and gain efficiency.

Maybe in 200 years.

[freebeard]

1) As the economy contracts and industries shut down, if prices were to rise, they may not be able to start up production again. Especially in the face of competition from advanced solar (roll-to-roll printed amorphous silicon) and sucking gasoline out of thin air (currently at demonstration stage).

2) Parts count. Cars have too many components. 3D printed basalt fiber/ABS body with electric drivetrain.

3) Beware graphs that are capped at 26 mpg.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by darcane

1) This is just temporary. Fuel prices will go back up.

As they say, "the cure for low prices is low prices."

Oil Bulls Plunge Into Market as U.S. Gasoline Demand Hits Record

American gasoline consumption rose to 9.25 million barrels a day in March, an all-time high for the month, the American Petroleum Institute said April 21.

Oil Bulls Plunge Into Market as U.S. Gasoline Demand Hits Record - Bloomberg



Source: https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/weekly/gasoline.cfm

The graph for active US oil rigs is still pointing straight down, and US production has also been falling. It's down something like 7% from its peak last year.

(Canadian numbers aren't as readily available, but I suspect the picture here is even more dire because of higher production cost & pipeline bottlenecks.)

In the past couple of months, US gas prices have climbed to a 6 month high:



And predictably, activity in the forum was up last month.