Kayla Shepard

With the population rising the car industry is rising up right behind it, unfortunately it seems gas and oils are becoming an issue, scientists are beginning to fret how they will keep all of our transportations fueled in the future if we deplete our recourses. Until then, consumers all over the world need to find a resourceful and more eco friendly way to sustain the gas in transportation, mainly automobiles.

Step one to keeping away from high bills on gasoline is to find the best octane level for your car, for most cars that octane is Regular. There is no gain in using a higher level except for paying more to the gas station. Fortunately in this day and age there’s an app for everything! There are now apps for your phone that can help find the best priced gas stations around you, there’s one benefit for so much technology lately. A few more rules to follow to keep your gas prices low are: not to speed, the faster you go the more fuel you go through, avoid keeping your car sitting with the engine on its just fuel and money down the drain, use overdrive and cruise control, this way your maintaining a specific speed and coasting uses the less fuel of all!

One of the biggest ways the automobile industry is trying to help with gas mileage was the creation of the Hybrid car,

“Hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs) combine the benefits of gasoline engines and electric motors and can be configured to obtain different objectives, such as improved fuel economy, increased power, or additional auxiliary power for electronic devices and power tools”( www.fueleconomy.gov).

Regenerative breaking is one of the best qualities to a hybrid car, the electric motor applies resistance to the drivetrain making the wheels slow, by doing so it gives the energy from the wheels and turns the motor which in the end functions as a generator. All the energy wasted when breaking and coasting in normal cars is all converted into battery power for a hybrid car. Another amazing thing about the hybrid car is the automatic shutoff meaning the engine turns off when the car comes to a stop and turns back on when it is accelerated, this gets rid of the gas guzzling idling in normal cars.

Purchasing any SUV or other 4 to 6 cylinder can eat up the money in your wallet and skyrocket the price for gas, now in this economic struggle people are beginning to realize the investment of smaller cars and that maintenance on old cars is the best way to save money. According to usnews.com,

“In 2007, the Bust administration raised the gas mileage requirements automakers had to meet.  Then in 2009, the Obama administration raised them further.  Those rules, which are about to be finalized in detail, will require each automaker’s fleet to average a lofty 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025- roughly double the mileage requirement of just five years ago”. (http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/rick-newman/2012/08/27/tough-government-gas-mileage-rules-good-for-drivers-auto-industry)

Because of these new requirements automobile industries are developing new ways to save gas mileage such as superior powertrains and transmissions, lighter pieces in the car, and even different ways to fix a damaged tire instead of carrying around a new one, to save weight.

This new requirement passed by Bush and now soon to be adopted by the Obama Administration is not only helpful for consumers but ironically also for auto-makers, they know that with better mileage they will make better sales and with better sales better profit and eventually more jobs! For example: Ford is hurrying its development for more hybrid cars making their goal 135 million dollar investment in hybrids, Ford has also doubled its team to develop more energy efficient technology and is planning on doubling again in 2015, Honda is also planning on hiring more workers, 300 to be exact to develop the Civic Hybrid, Volkswagen is developing a third shift in their Tennessee plant to enhance the fuel-efficient Passat, and finally Continental (a fuel efficient turbo charger supplier of Ford) is going after electronic technologies as a “long-term investment”. Those are just a few car companies that are developing new efficient ways to save gas mileage for consumers. Automobile makers are taking this new act of efficient gas mileage very seriously and they are not waiting around for the green light. They know the more options buyers have the more cars will be bought in the end.

“How Hybrids Work.” U.S. Department of Energy. N.p., 19 Feb. 2013. Web. 19

Feb. 2013. <http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/hybridtech.shtml>.

Lubber, Mindy. “Why Fuel Mileage Standars Will Benefit The Auto Industry and

Create Nearly 700,000 New Jobs.” ThinkProgress (2012): n. pag. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. <http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/27/738621/why-fuel-mileage-standards-will-benefit-the-auto-industry-and-create-nearly-700000-new-jobs/?mobile=nc>.

Newman, Rick. “Tough Government Gas Mileage Rules Good for Drivers, Auto

Industry.” U.S.News [Washington] 27 Aug. 2012: n. pag. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. <http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/rick-newman/2012/08/27/tough-government-gas-mileage-rules-good-for-drivers-auto-industry>.