1 gallon of gas puts out 19 pounds of CO2, so this equates to about 10.5 mpg which actually sounds reasonable for a 1000 HP supertruck that weighs 7800 lbs. A stock Ford F-250 only gets 16 mpg for reference.
> I can't wait for the day people will have decided they need a vehicle so heavy that an airliner mpg actually sounds reasonable for a car.
Airliners are pretty darn fuel-efficient, more efficient than even many lightweight cars. (Assuming you don't leave seats empty, that is.)
As of 2017 [1]: "Domestic airliner can get anywhere from 45.5 to 77.6 miles per gallon per passenger, with an industry average of about 51 miles per gallon of fuel per passenger."
For comparison, the average car gets something like 25-30 MPG, so airliners are some 2x more efficient.
What average car are you talking about ? 9.5l / 100km is attrocious and average in 2005.
A starlet from 1998 gets better fuel economy already. And so does a Volvo v40 2.0 turbo. I believe a 1800kg modern day M3 sports car already gets better fuel economy than a plane if you seat it with 3 people.
I couldn’t find a detailed breakdown in one of the sources, but how can the average be so close with light trucks and vans. In any case this is not representative for the majority of Europe.
I'd argue it's ordinary rather than reasonable. It seems like the tax is fair, you can import a 1000hp beast for personal use and get taxed heavily, or you can import it for whatever sort of haulage you need a 1000hp pickup truck for and you're limited by the rules of other haulage trucks.
I understand. On the team I'm on right now, we're trying to make some large changes, and some of that has to do with challenging assumptions. I'm just primed to see things like "10 weeks is a reasonable amount of time for Y" as a check point to ask whether it's actually reasonable, or whether we've fallen into a pattern that we've stopped questioning.
You can't directly compare EU versus US mileage numbers.[1] A lot of conversions from liters per mile to miles per gallon use UK gallons, which are 1.2x larger than US gallons. Also the EU mileage tests are less taxing on vehicles and easier to game. In actual driving you're unlikely to hit EPA numbers, and there's almost no way to get to the EU numbers. Typically, European cars get 30-45% higher fuel consumption than their test ratings.[2] The gap has gotten bigger as car manufacturers have gotten better at gaming the test.
There's no special technology in EU cars that makes them get better mileage than their US counterparts. Europeans just tend to drive smaller vehicles, many of which wouldn't pass crash tests in the US. For example, the Smart Fortwo had to be increased in length to pass US crash tests.
50mpg is a pretty reasonable number still, from my use statistics.
> many of which wouldn't pass crash tests in the US. For example, the Smart Fortwo had to be increased in length to pass US crash tests.
The smart isn't really a common car in Europe. As for crash tests, some US vehicles wouldn't pass EU tests either. The two regulations test for different properties, and manufacturers optimize for that.
As for actual safety, trafic fatality is equivalent or better in Europe, especially for people not inside a car.
You barely see trucks here, compared to how popular they are in the US. Looking up a "best selling trucks in EU" would very much give you a skewed perception.
Now you're just reminding me how much Ford massacred my boy... Ford Rangers used to be the stripped down compact pickup actually useful as a light truck, and now it's just another oversized behemoth...
The Maverick should be the new version of that... if it actually offered any practical options!
Yup, whenever I see one here (in Germany) I wonder why not go the Full Size Pickup way? I mean the modern Rangers are as tall as my RAM 1500 anyway and only a little narrower. But narrow enough to make them look awkward. It's like only 20cm I would guess.
I also wonder why no manufacturer brings a full size pickup model to the Euro market. At this point mid sized trucks aren't that much smaller and me daily driving an imported RAM 1500 I can say that German cities/roads aren't too small for full size pickups. (DHL Delivery vans are larger yet still fit everywhere).
Oh and the really cool mid sized trucks aren't here either. (I'd kill for a TRD Tacoma).
