What is Economical When it Comes to Miles Per Gallon?

Generally speaking, the average fuel efficiency of cars in Europe surpasses that of cars in the United States. In Europe, an average car will get about 47 miles per gallon driving on the highway, and 36 miles per gallon in city traffic, whereas the average U.S car will get only 27 miles per gallon on the highway and 21 miles per gallon in city traffic.

Obviously, the type and size of vehicle play a great part in the fuel efficiency of a vehicle. For example, a small pi-up truck will get about 28 miles per gallon, while a full-sized pick-up with an extended cab will get only about 13 miles per gallon in the city and 15 miles per gallons on the highway.

In fact, the difference in car size between the average European car and the average U.S. car may be mostly responsible for the differences in fuel efficiency between these areas. But also, European emissions standards and the like are much stricter and is surely a factor in the differences of fuel efficiency as well.

Fuel efficiency is normally expressed in terms of power per unit of engine displacement, which is also known as specific output. Despite the common usage, the term ‘fuel efficiency’ is not synonymous with ‘gas mileage’. Modern fuel injected cars are much more efficient at producing power than their carbureted predecessors.

Improvements in fuel efficiency that have been achieved in the last twenty years have not been translated into improvements in fuel economy, however. Much of the savings have been offset by the use of larger, heavier and less aerodynamic vehicle body styles and the use of much more powerful engines.

In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency is the government body that makes the calculations that the auto manufacturers must use when advertising their vehicles. The Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for the two numbers of highway driving and city driving that are seen on cars today.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s tests do not directly measure fuel consumption, but instead calculate the amount of fuel used by way of measuring the emissions from the tailpipe of a car based on a formula that was created in 1972. Cars in these tests are not actually driven around a course, but are cycled through specific profiles of stops, starts and runs on a dynamometer in a laboratory environment.

Smog has made emissions standards more strict and some of the resulting numbers do not directly correspond to what people experience in real life when driving. Usually, the Environmental Protection Agency’s estimate of mileage is several percent higher than what the average driver will experience in practice, although there are some cases where the difference is nearly 200% higher than what the average driver will achieve.

In the United Kingdom, the Vehicle Certification Agency has initiated a similar fuel economy rating system in accordance with the European Community Directive. The ratings of the Vehicle Certification Agency are based on an urban and extra-urban driving cycle. The extra-urban cycle is conducted just after the urban cycle and is made up of roughly half steady-speed driving and the remainder accelerations, decelerations and some idling. The urban cycle is a cold start followed by a series of accelerations, steady speeds, decelerations and idling.

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