Here's a link to a fascinating set of briefings about the future of Automotive Fuel Economy from the recent FIA-Foundation Symposium FIA Symposium: Towards a Global Approach to Automotive Fuel Economy Some of the highlights include: Willy Tomboy's presentation on where Toyota is putting their development dollars (although I'm sure not all of their secrets are revealed) Noubuo Tanaka's presentation contains some damning statistics on the unsustainability of biofuels Sylvie Lemmet's presentation shows some future CO2 levels the importance of hybrid technologies and the folly of hydrogen based vehicles Kelly Sims Gallagher's presentation shows recent data on why Americans buy hybrid vehicles and the implications of using social engineering (see slide 4) and the expected future cost of gasoline in the US (slide 12) David Greene's presentation documenting the US's increasing reliance on imported oil and the resulting transfer of wealth Other presentations show some manufacturer's dogged insistance that incremental improvements to diesel engines, camshafts and placing economy ratings on new cars will solve the problems. But ADAC's testing results in Reinhard Kolke's presentation shows that the Prius is unbeaten in managing emissions (see slide 20)
The thing is, I think we also need to take a look at the trucking industry. Back then, railroads were the way to ship things long distance. I still think it's a brilliant way since they have their own tracks, they can go as fast as they want except near towns and they can carry a lot more than what a truck can carry. Plus trucks tend to idle a lot. They'll probably have an engine running 24/7 for a week at a time. Tougher emissions standards and rebates to get really old trucks off the road and have the companies get new ones will help with air quality.
The figures I have found say one gallon of diesel is good for 400 ton-miles by rail but only around 120-130 ton-miles by truck, about a 3:1 advantage in fuel efficiency.
I have read of the rule of 5's. Water is 5x train is 5x Semi truck. Anything is better than all the trucks on the road.
Thanks samian, a veritable mine of information and thought here. I will read through this over a few days and digest.
