Hybrid Cars

Ever heard of CAFE? No, it's not your local java hut, it's the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards set by the EPA. The gist of it is that auto manufacturers need to meet a fuel economy average set by the EPA to ensure a fleet of green-er vehicles. The standards are set pretty high; by 2016, all auto manufacturers need to have an average 42 MPG for cars and 24 MPG for trucks. Aggressive, yes, neccessary, absolutely.

CAFE is the average of all the estimated fuel economy numbers on the sticker above. For 2011, every automaker needs to reach an average of 27.3 MPG for all types of vehicles; cars, trucks and SUV's. Seems simple enough, right. Well, lets remember that the government is in charge of creating the rules for CAFE, so let me explain why this is FAR more complicated than it should be.

The CAFE law provides for special treatment of vehicle fuel economy calculations for dedicated alternative fuel vehicles and dual-fuel vehicles. The fuel economy of a dedicated alternative fuel vehicle is determined by dividing its fuel economy in equivalent miles per gallon of gasoline or diesel fuel by 0.15. Thus a 15 mpg dedicated alternative fuel vehicle would be rated as 100 mpg. For dual-fuel vehicles (vehicles that can use the alternative fuel and gasoline or diesel interchangeably), the rating is the average of the fuel economy on gasoline or diesel and the fuel economy on the alternative fuel vehicle divided by .15. For example, this calculation procedure turns a dual fuel vehicle that averages 25 mpg on gasoline or diesel with the above 100 mpg alternative fuel to attain the 40 mpg value for CAFE purposes. Several limitations are established for CAFE credits for dual fuel vehicles.

That blurb is taken from the National Highway Traffic Safety Association. Basically, it means that an alternative-fuel vehicle that actually sees 25 MPG in it's daily use, no matter which fuel it's running, can be counted as a 40 MPG vehicle for the purposes of CAFE. This is because E85 is only 15% gasoline and 85% ethanol. The really interesting part; vehicles actually get worse fuel economy when running E85. This is why you keep seeing E85-approved vehicles hitting the road, but no E85 gas stations opening up. Brilliant, huh? To date, there are less than 600 gas stations in the United States selling E85. So does all that make much sense? Not really.