Fuel economy was regarded as a significant factor in their pick of a new car by a minimum of 1/3 of buyers in America. In 1992 previously General Motors built a vehicle that got 100 miles to the gallon – and all these years later on one of people’s major concerns on top of global warming and pollution is dependence on foreign oil. Another vehicle, the GM TPC, which looked a lot like the Geo Metro, weighed only 1000 pounds and could get 75 miles per gallon. However, to be able to meet American safety regulations, the 3-cylinder vehicle required reinforcement weighing 200 pounds, which led to further development being discarded.
It’s fairly shocking that this had not been the only GM prototype that was built, only to be thrown out later. A few of these were the 1982 GM Lean Machine which made 80 miles per gallon, and the GM Ultralite which made 100 mpg. As soon as Honda in 1992 achieved 50 mpg with the Civic VX, GM was promoting cars that got 20 mpg, while in the background they had vehicles capable of 100 mpg. Clearly this begs the question that explains why these cars that are proficient at 100 mpg are not available to the public.
How come conventional vehicles sold in the US, while at the same time, the same companies are selling different vehicles far away in other countries? For quite a while cars that get over 70 miles per gallon have been available in Japan and Europe. A case in point of a car never offered within the US and capable of 78 mpg, is the Lupo by Volkswagen. Honda introduced to the US market in 2007, a car named the Fit, but known as the Jazz in other parts of the world. The Jazz in Japan has solutions to increase fuel economy and a smaller engine, but for the US, the Fit doesn’t even contain a smaller engine as an option.
Auto manufacturers in the usa express to their public that they make big autos because they, the public, love big autos. Building a small commuter type vehicle doesn’t make the manfacturer big money, unlike with a large SUV. Commercials have convinced the citizens of the US that Tanks on Wheels are an absolute must to have. It’s quite apparent where the large companies’ interests lay when you consider that they have never offered options. Leading the way in fuel economy might have been General Motors, but they choose to often be the leader in SUVs instead. The many other car makers did the same thing by producing fuel-efficient cars, but then denied them to Americans.
We live in a world that has waged wars over oil, that has been polluted, and car makers have never even given the choice to people in this country of fuel-efficient cars. The question comes up: how many Americans would’ve been thankful for the option of acquiring a car with good gas mileage but weren’t ever offered it? Maybe the moment has come to restart building those cars that were developed only to be abandoned all those years ago.
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