Climate - truthful information about climate, related activism and politics. @slrpnk.net jeffw @lemmy.world 6mo ago

The misleading, wasteful way we measure gas mileage, explained

www.vox.com The misleading, wasteful way we measure gas mileage, explained

And how to measure fuel economy better.

13 comments

Join us, we have L/100km instead
Can I please buy some of that $2.90 per gallon gasoline?
- Cheap gas is half the reason we're in this mess.
I get confused by any other system than KMs per litre
- My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it.
- I wish that were used. But instead we get this inverse, L/100 km.
  
  Edit: after reading the article, apparently this is actually better. Even though km/L might seem easier to work with, it is misleading in terms of how you compare two vehicles.
Good point, but GPHM has more syllables, and GPM makes it sound small;

but still, maybe 50, 25, 15, and 10 MPG could be expressed as 0.02, 0.04, <0.07, and 0.1 GPM.
- Just drop the M - GPH/gallons per hundred is just as short and easy to say as MPG.
  In Australia we say "litres per hundred", there's no point specifying kilometres because what else would it be?
  
  OPM (Ounces per mile) seems to work out to nice numbers. A gas guzzler might use 13 OPM, where as a decently efficient sedan would be around 3. Plus we can keep our ridiculous American units, just the way we like them.
  
  "x ℓ/100"
  
  maybe.
  
  maybe "x mL/km" ("x milliliters/km")—as in "80 mL/km"
  
  or
  
  maybe "x kL/Mm" ("x kiloliters/megameters")—as in 0.8 kL or 800ℓ/Mm"
  
  I have to think about it. 🤔
It's why the 2007 Chevy Tahoe Hybrid won a green car award. It may have been a measley 21MPG city (11.2 L/100km, 4.8gal/100mi), but that was 30% better than previous models.

Notably, the US DOE shows gal/100mi on their fuel economy website already. https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/bymodel/2007_Chevrolet_Tahoe.shtml https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/bymodel/2008_Chevrolet_Tahoe.shtml

13 comments