If one car consumes almost twice as much gas as the other one for driving at the same speed, where does the excess power go to?

Question

So let’s assume we have two cars. One is a really eco-friendly family car sedan, and the other one is a lamborghini. Both drive at a speed of 100kmh (62mph), And lets say we load up the lighter of the cars with some weights, so that they weigh the same. So lambo would on average, consume more fuel.

My question is, where does this extra power vanish to? Since fuel makes an explosion and explosion drives the torque of the car, where does this explosion power vanish to in a lambo? Since it generates more explosion, but still drives at the same speed.

In: Engineering

Answer 1

The energy from fuel goes several places: acceleration of the vehicle; wind resistance; heat; noise; friction; etc. Using less fuel depends on how much of each of these things is present. High-economy vehicles usually limit how much acceleration is available, focus on reducing drag and friction, and even recouping excess energy from braking (in electric/ hybrid vehicles).