Fuel Economy. Fuel Consumption. It's interesting stuff, or I'm determined to make it so. (I'm also putting this here because I don't want to bookmark it). I got here by reading an MPG thread on one of the ST forums, and it occurred to me how different our window stickers are. For instance, the US rates my car at 23/32 MPG city/highway, and in Canada the same car is rated at 32/46 MPG city/highway. Once you convert the Canadian ratings from the UK gallon to the US, you're back to 26.5/37.5 MPG, which is still quite different from the US. Why is that?
http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/programs/enviro ... aq-139.htmThis document tells the story of fuel economy, why Canadian cars and US cars get different window stickers, and the differences between our test procedures. Specifically, the US uses a 5-cycle test (
http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/programs/enviro ... le-530.htm) and Canada uses a 2-cycle test (
http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/programs/enviro ... le-517.htm) The US weights their test results differently than Canada does, to "better simulate real-world conditions". Interestingly, it sounds like to me the Canadian results are measured and calculated based on the emissions put out by a car, not by the actual fuel burned. I wonder why that is?
Anyway, I'd be hard pressed to match the numbers seen by the Canadian window stickers, but most forum members are meeting the US ones without too much trouble. I found the US EPA ratings pretty close to accurate for my truck, too.
Ford seems to be getting dragged into a class-action lawsuit over the ratings given to the hybrid C-Max, similar to what other manufacturers are going through with their own hybrids. They advertize 47 MPG for that one but most people are seeing 10-15 MPG less than that. The manufacturers are following an EPA test procedure and advertize that, so it's not a problem with "fixing" the numbers since the EPA has to verify the numbers the manufacturer submits. Realistic numbers were arrived at for conventional cars by adjusting the numbers by as much as 22% from test results, so obviously the EPA needs to come up with different conversion factors for hybrids. People need to understand how to drive the things too, to take advantage of regenerative braking and the like.
Since class-action lawsuits aren't allowed under Canadian law (I don't think, anyway) there doesn't seem to be much recourse for people who buy their cars based on MPG claimed on their window stickers. I certainly didn't buy mine for the economy, but I did hope for a bit better than what I'm seeing. Still better than the F150, though.