Any updates on this one? Back in 1989 some of this was true, but now, 20 years later, gas is taking a bite. I realize taht the 200 MPG car is not here yet but any idea what the current record is?
If it were here, I think it’d be in the news. What do you see in the news today? Hybrids getting 50-60 mpg, and electric cars. That’s the best we’ve got in production.
Column in question: Has a 200 mpg carburetor been suppressed by the oil industry? (July 28, 1989)
If you’re asking about clearly bogus things like 200 mph carburetors, then there hasn’t been any change in the state-of-the-art since 1989: they’re still bogus.
If you’re asking about the current record for automobile fuel efficiency in general, then I don’t know the answer. However, some of the answer is going to depend on your definition af an acceptable candidate.
For example, one of the best ways to reduce fuel usage is to reduce weight and frontal area. Do that enough and you’ve got a motorcycle rather than an automobile. As another example, electric cars use zero gasoline. Is that a candidate? How about plug-ins? And so forth.
For 2008 EPA-tested production vehicles, the Prius leads the pack.
That is in production, I’m talking about the posibilities in the near future. By the way according to www.fueleconomy.gov the 2008 Toyota Prius gets an average 46 MPG.
The 65 mpg Ford the U.S. Can’t Have.
That’s the highest mileage production vehicle I know of and it’s a diesel.
Colleges compete annually in super-high-mileage events in hand-built ultralights that might crack 1000 mpg.
In the future? I don’t care about or believe in any claims about the future. If it’s not on the road for ordinary buyers then it doesn’t mean anything. It’s vaporware.
Those numbers are misleading because it all depends on how you drive. I can get a comfortable 50-52 MPG in my 2006 Prius if I keep at or below the speed limit and don’t accelerate too hard when driving more than twenty miles per trip. When I first got it I averaged 54 MPG commuting 60 miles a day, but that took careful driving.
To answer the OP, as of March the world’s record is 7148 MPG/. Of course they use superlight, aerodynamic vehicles and accelerate really slowly.
Almost any car can get improved milage if you learn to drive differently. Google Hypermiling and see people who routinely double the EPA estimates of there cars or better. The down side is it can be dangerous, tedious, and extremely annoying to other drivers.
The Aptera was originally promising 300+ but now has scaled back and said 100+.
As I understand it, the safety requirements add enough weight to scale back efficiency. (Based on an article regarding the Honda CRX. It regularly got 50+ but had a safety rating of 1 or 1 1/2.)
As it happens, this has been the running plot in Gasoline Alley for the last month or so, with the big punchline in today’s (Wednesday, Sep. 24) strip. See http://www.gocomics.com/gasolinealley and look at the Archive.