Courtesy of the EPA, this chart shows the average horsepower of new cars and pickup trucks sold in the US since 1980:
It's almost impossible to find a car these days that boasts only 100 horsepower—the average in 1980—but the Toyota Yaris clocks in at 106 hp. This gives it an EPA mileage rating of 35 mpg.
In other words, a fleet of vehicles with modern technology and an average of 100 hp would deliver a fleet average of about 35 mpg. Instead, we've used technology mostly to increase horsepower. Average fleet horsepower for all US vehicles (cars, trucks, SUVs, everything) has increased from 103 hp in 1980 to 247 hp in 2020. As a result, average fleet mileage since 1980 has increased only from 19 mpg to 26 mpg.
If our current overall fleet mileage were instead 35 mpg, we would save nearly 40 billion gallons of gasoline per year. That amounts to a reduction of 350 million tonnes of CO2, which is about 6% of total US emissions.
Would that be worth it? Your call.
POSTSCRIPT: The Toyota Yaris accelerates from 0 to 60 in 9.6 seconds. That's about the same as the Mazda RX-7 I owned in 1980, and only slightly worse than the Subaru Forester I own now. As a comparison, the RX-7 (0-60 in 10 seconds) seemed pretty sprightly to me back in the day, while the Forester feels gutless even though it's actually faster than the RX-7 (0-60 in 8.6 seconds). This is how our expectations have changed thanks to the ever increasing horsepower of US vehicles.
The all electric Chevy Bolt is zero to 60 in 6.5 seconds
https://www.carindigo.com/chevrolet/bolt-ev-electric/0to60
And the Tesla is between 3.2 and 5.0 seconds depending on model:
https://www.zeroto60times.com/vehicle-make/tesla-0-60-mph-times/
And my el cheapo Chevy Spark EV is zero to 60 in 9.2 seconds.
https://autofiles.com/0-60-times/chevrolet/spark-ev/
When I first took possession of our 2017 Bolt, I was quite fond of out-accelerating the various youngsters with their tricked-out cars.
When you step on the gas in an IC car it takes a second or two to downshift and if turbocharged, to build boost. When you step on the gas in an EV the acceleration is instantaneous.
Electric accelerate faster.
Not just horsepower, check vehicle weight. Which Forbes corrects me--vehicle sizes have grown, and that weight grows with size.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/samabuelsamid/2019/01/03/new-vehicles-keep-getting-heavier-or-are-they/?sh=7a954f034518
Admit it, Kevin. One of the nicest things about that Forrester is how easy it is to get in and out of.
Ah, but te RX-7 had a Wankel.
I have a huge problem when I have to drive 80 MPH just to play defense.
So much in fact that I just don’t drive unless I absolutely must.
My first car had 50 hp, and that was a 25 percent improvement over the prior year model. (VW beetle).
We're doing with cars as we have done with houses, bigger is better, and with wardrobes, bigger is better, and with bellies, bigger is better.
It must have been 1993 or 1994 when a friend (not otherwise prone to midlife crises) bought an Eagle Talon with 200hp, which, at the time, was just outlandishly, preposterously powerful for a street vehicle. He took a couple of us out in it to "see what it could do". Let's just say it was a good thing that the front seats had stout hinges. The street was a 35mph arterial, but that car did 0-35 in less than a human reaction time. It wasn't even scary, just irritatingly stupid.
Russell Baker, in his memoir, tells stories of the first car he bought in England in the 1950s. It had 12hp, and it was a little underpowered, but still quite usable. Today lawnmowers have that.
"tonnes"?
Not only powerful but also LOUD. These days it has to be LOUD or you're not a real man. The influence of the Fast and Furious movies will take years to shake out of the rug.
Roll coal!
This is part of why I am glad to be an expatriate over in Europe. In Munich, home to BMW, cars are going more and more for stealthy power: so quiet that basically all you hear are the wheels, and the motor noise in the interior is often louder, because it's artificial. Along the line the BMW engineers discovered that owners associated the deep growl with power, so there are actual hidden loudspeakers designed to make the owner happy.
As for me, my dream car at the moment is the modern Fiat 500, it's a fun little car that is just right for commuting, but also capable of going on road trips. The Smart Fortwo is just a wee bit too urban and not really good for the Autobahn.
The claim that "In other words, a fleet of vehicles with modern technology and an average of 100 hp would deliver a fleet average of about 35 mpg." For ordinary ICE powered vehicles, fuel mileage in town is affected mostly by vehicle weight. On the highway, aerodynamics tend to be more important. The Yaris is small and light, and reasonably streamlined. A bigger heavier vehicle with the same power train would NOT get the same fuel mileage.
I was a car enthusiast back in the muscle car era. In those days, increasing horsepower meant a serious fuel mileage penalty. These days, the fuel mileage penalty for increased horsepower is very small. Take a look at the mileage on vehicles with engine options to see what I mean. The fuel consumption with the most powerful gasoline engine is only slightly worse than with the least powerful, typically one or two mpg.
Sorry Kevin, reducing horsepower wouldn't save much fuel if the vehicles otherwise stay the same. What's needed is smaller, lighter vehicles.
LawnOrder, you can even take that a giant step further. I think Kevin has chosen a TERRIBLE example to try to make a point.
The Toyota Yaris is very small and very uncomfortable. That’s a high price, and an unnecessary price, to pay for fuel economy. The Honda Civic, by way of comparison, is large enough to be comfortable in the front seats, adequate for adults in the rear seats. It has a full size trunk. It makes over 150 HP from its 2 liter standard engine. And it gets approximately the same gas mileage as the puny Yaris.
The Civic has been continually evolved over 50 years by some brilliant engineers at Honda. If we need a stalking horse for this conversation, that one is a helluva lot better than the Yaris.
Indeed. And this phenomenon is also linked to the perceived "sprightliness" of a car--as I'm sure you're aware lawnorder.
IOW, it's not just a question of rising expectations--or, rather, it's not just a question of rising expectations for power per se, but rather for all the things power must contend with (size, weight, safety, insulation from NHV). Other things equal, a car will "feel" faster if it is lighter, lower, smaller, less insulated from the road, and more mechanically direct. A quick drive in a Lotus Elise, or better still a Morgan 3 Wheeler, makes the point with visceral directness.
The 1st gen RX-7 (a marvelous little sportscar) weighed ~2,400 lbs at the curb. In the current US market only the ND Miata is in this range. Typical subcompacts (which are fast disappearing in any case) are hundreds of pounds heavier. For comparison, 1st gen VW Rabbits and Sciroccos tipped the scales at ~2,000 lbs. I had one of the latter. It had 90 on a good day, and was riotously fun.
There would be big problems, though, with any attempt to revive the Chapman way ("add lightness") for modern mainstream family vehicles: Expectations are shaped by a feedback loop in which more traffic, on wider roads, filled with bigger & faster cars, all tend to lead to the consumer prioritization of more insulation from these very same conditions, which in turn necessitates more mass, driving those same expectations still higher.
Hence the rapid disappearance of options in the subcompact space (except for bulked up "crossovers" attempting to convey an illusion of greater size).
And, unfortunately, EV tech seems destined (at least in the sort run) to reinforce the tendency to tradeoff more size & weight for more power (and, now, range). And this seems likely to hit not only the US market, but Europe as well.
Japan seems somewhat immune, at least for now, thanks to the regulated Kei Car segment--which would certainly be a way to encourage smaller/lighter vehicle design in the US, were there any sizable constituency for such a thing which, sadly, there does not appear to be.
In fairness, a lot of the increased weight is due to regulations requiring increased crash resistance, as well as a market that now defines air bags, air conditioning, sun roofs, automatic transmissions, power steering and power windows and seats as standard equipment.
"This is how our expectations have changed thanks to the ever increasing horsepower of US vehicles."
If you really want to (re)set your expectation, drive an EV other than a golf cart.
"If our current overall fleet mileage were instead 35 mpg..."
... we would still have to be transitioning to EVs to combat global warming. Perhaps hydrogen.
Kevin's being silly. A three-gun rack would look ridiculous in a Toyota Yaris.
+1
Made my day! 😉
I had a '71 VW squareback in high school. Once I got good at shifting fast, we tested 0-60 in about 19 seconds. We were laughing and saying it had a Briggs and Stratton (lawn mower) engine. I do recall seeing a manual that listed its engine size in pints, not liters.
The Subaru Forester weighs 50% more than the 1980 RX-7 or today's Toyota Yaris. That's why the RX-7 felt more nimble with less horsepower.
The Prius has more horsepower than the Yaris and better gas mileage as well. More horsepower does not mean worse fuel economy.
"In the city traffic game, the marginal utility of each additional horsepower in a car’s engine was awfully close to zero.
All the cars on the road, whether their engines produced 70 horsepower or 370, could move far faster than a bicycle on an open road, and all of them could easily surpass the speed limits on highways. Yet they were all hard-pressed to accelerate from 1 – 20 km/h faster than a bicycle, with its human engine of less than 1/2 hp, could do."
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2021-03-12/the-marginal-uselessness-of-muscle-cars/