The average new car isn’t much more fuel-efficient than older ones. Still, to this day, the average vehicle has a range of between 20 and 30 miles per gallon, a stat which was very similar in the 1920s. How come with all the advances we’ve made in the last century is fuel efficiency the same?

Question

The average new car isn’t much more fuel-efficient than older ones. Still, to this day, the average vehicle has a range of between 20 and 30 miles per gallon, a stat which was very similar in the 1920s. How come with all the advances we’ve made in the last century is fuel efficiency the same?

In: Technology

Answer 1

This is a really complex question. Are we talking just four-door sedans? Because they have gotten more
Fuel efficient since 1920. But also, there are more variables than just fuel efficiency. For example, safety standards. A car built in 2021 and sold in the USA has to meet a tremendous number of safety standards. This means that fuel economy is sometimes sacrificed to meet these standards. Take a Honda Civic engine back to 1920 and slap it into a light crappy car and bam, there’s your efficiency gain. I mean you’ll be driving an unbalanced death trap, but you see what I mean.

Answer 2

Can you provide the information for this? It depends on the vehicles that are counted. Averaging a large SUV with a Prius says nothing about them as individual vehicles.

Here is a chart that shows improvement. https://www.greencarcongress.com/2019/09/20190930-sivak.html