Heard about China's new 42 mpg standards? Get educated first
Which is better? A national fleet fuel economy standard (think CAFE) of 42.2 mpg or 35.5. mpg? The former, right? Well, 42.2 is exactly what China has put in place and, from that one number, they seem to be beating the U.S. The trusty John O'Dell over at Green Car Advisor breaks down why we need to look beyond the numbers so that when the political debate on "why are the Chinese so far ahead of the U.S.?" gets going, we can answer the question with a bit of background.
Fact 1: China's current mpg standard of 36.8 mpg is higher than what we have in the U.S., so it's not as big a leap to 42.2.Full details here.Yes, 42.2 is still better than 35.5, but now you know a little bit about why, and why the simple questions rarely have simple answers.
Fact 2: The national fleet in China is mostly made up of small cars that are inherently more efficient than American land barges.
Fact 3: Fuel economy is used as a basis for taxes in China, so consumer demand for smaller cars exists in a way it doesn't here in the U.S.
[Source: Green Car Advisor]
Photo by Smoking Permitted. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brandon 2:42PM (5/29/2009)
Don't forget about the fact that American cars have to put on alot more weight to meet those safety regulations that Chinese cars don't, which lowers that fuel economy.
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wave54 3:38PM (5/29/2009)
I doubt it's that much more weight than non-Chinese-built vehicles. Perhaps just better design and high-strength materials would bring their cars into compliance. Even the Chinese domestic brands have crumple-zones and multiple airbags. Those vehicles built for US/Euro/Japanese companies are built to the specs of the original manfacturer (GM, Volvo, VW, Toyota, etc.).
Chris 1:26AM (5/30/2009)
I came here to mention that. Great point.
meme 2:52PM (5/29/2009)
Or that the Chinese drivecycle gives even higher numbers than the NEDC.
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zoomev 2:54PM (5/29/2009)
Meaningless excuses.
The bottom line is the bottom line.
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Frank 3:20PM (5/29/2009)
Eh, justify it however you want. The US is lagging behind in many areas, not just fuel economy. So we have more ground to cover, does that mean we should be held to a lower standard? How's that logic work?
In fact, because we've let things get this bad is all the more reason why 35.5 is NOT enough.
Joseph 3:18PM (5/29/2009)
@ brandon : yes, the safety regulations make the car heavier and make the car safer. But it's not always a good thing. When people buy a safer car (a dozen+ airbags, ABS, ESP, side impact protection, you name it), people feel safer driving the car. As a result, people drive faster, take more risk, drive 3 feet behind another car doing 70 mph, you name it.
What would happen if we put the gas tank on the front bumper in front of the hot engine, you think we still take the risk of hitting somebody from behind?
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Brandon 1:34AM (5/30/2009)
I think you underestimate the power of stupid people. Yes, I am 100% certain they would still drive like idiots.
greenmind 3:45PM (5/29/2009)
stop looking for excuses. just sell the big three to chinese 'cause apparently they know how to build greener vehicles better than americans. and then we'll automatically met the 42 mpg standard.
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Think Green 3:45PM (5/29/2009)
OK - I don't get the "3 Facts" - all of them are lame excuses not arguments answering the question: "..why are the Chinese so far ahead of the U.S.?"
to Fact 1 - so why does China already have a higher standard than the US? .. why are they so far ahead of the U.S. .. already?
to Fact 2 - why are smaller cars OK in China (and the rest of the world) but the US believe they need to hold on to their beloved V8 pick-ups?
to Fact 3 - Isn't that an argument for China agreeing that they are far ahead of the US - they have already implemented a tax system (again like many other countries in the world) that encourages people to consume less oil?
call it what you want but the US is not a leader when it comes to clean energy or energy efficiency. point!
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Joseph 4:24PM (5/29/2009)
@ think green. Excellent points.
One of the reason why smaller cars are ok in the rest of the world is the way the US is set up. In the 1960, oil lobby took over, infrastructure investments other than roads were abandoned (e.g. railroads, light rail etc,) The car became THE way for transportation over the years. Cities / areas in the US don't have city centers (yes, downtown, but that's not the same), it's all spread out, suburb after suburb, perfectly accessible by car but not by anything else. Forget light rail, trains, bikes, walking, etc. The infrastructure in most China and Europe are designed to transport people (by train, bus, car), in the US the infrastructure is mainly designed to transport cars only.
You can't blame the US. Cities in Europe are very old grew organically and so did the countries. The US is only a few hundred years old, cities and infrastructures are created, not grown organically. Unfortunately, the way it's set up is not the most efficient ones.
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steve 5:02PM (5/29/2009)
One reason why smaller cars are popular in the rest of the world is gas costs way more due to taxation. Plus other tax incentives do a good job of driving consumer demand for smaller more efficient vehicles.
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brn 7:51PM (5/29/2009)
If one believes charts like this:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12464789/
The price of gas in China is below what it is in the US. I believe their income is even lower yet, so that's likely a factor.
For the countries where it's a lot higher, let's keep in mind that money goes back to the citizens in some manner or another.
Darko 4:57AM (5/30/2009)
I think its unfortunate that anybody in US is trying to come up with such lame excuses.
US is behind China (and many,many other countries) regarding EFFECIENT cars.
Its not (100%) fault of Americans thought. Americans were cheated by oil and car industry for years.
All you have to do and go around this forums,you can still see very often:
"Nah, 200PS engine is not enough" or "V8 would be better" or "V6 3.6L as base engine for sedans ??!). My X3 has 150PS (diesel) and my 328ci has "only" 194PS and I am more than happy with that. Still I think I am consuming too much when driving my coupé.
Americans needs to change their attitude to the cars. Even more because US people are so dependent to road trasnport means higher utilisation of cars.
If citizens make higher gas mileage it will have fantastic economy and ecological results,just because so many people are using cars.
You don't have to any standards to purchase high mileage cars.
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Mark 8:24AM (5/30/2009)
Even some of the comments posted elsewhere in ABG give lame excuses. People demanding that cars should carry 10 people and drive from NYC to LAX on a single tank etc. With technology there is no reason why the majority of cars can't get 50mpg.
Consider that the model T had the same MPG as a Ford SUV hybrid.
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Snoopy 2:13AM (6/01/2009)
I can't believe I'm saying this but...
China, the new model for the U.S. to follow?
Ooh, I just got a weird chill. :p
Seriously though, I'm glad I live in Canada. We buy more small/smaller cars overall, so it's not going to take car manufacturers here all that much to meet the new standards anyway (though the foreign manufacturers were already meeting it for the most part anyway).
Sigh. Why can't we just get highway capable electrics now?
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