MIT Study Shows the Way Forward for Cars

A study on how to cut fuel consumption in half in 25 years may seem highly relevant after the summer of $4 gas, but researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology began the study five years ago, when gas cost half as much as it does now.

Let’s just say we’re glad they were working on it even when no one was paying attention.

With Americans sucking down somewhere in the neighborhood of 390 million gallons of gas each day, climate change screwing with the weather and world oil supplies stretched to the limit, MIT has several recommendations on how cars can survive.

Some of their suggestions are obvious, such as the continued development of hybrid, electric and hydrogen vehicles, along with innovations in vehicle weight and other gas-saving technologies.

In what is beginning to be viewed as the conventional wisdom, the researchers poo-poo corn ethanol, but advocate development of cellulosic ethanol, as well as biodiesels derived from algae.

The least popular of their suggestions (and we’d love to hear what our readers have to say on this subject), though, will surely be met with some resistance.

First of all, the study says that innovation in car technology must be geared toward fuel economy, not delivering more speed or power. That has obviously has been the trend over — how long? Oh, yes: the entire history of the automobile. Researchers flatly state that Americans must learn to conserve and, in doing so, expect less from their cars in terms of performance and size. In other words, it’s not about inventing ways to make SUVs more efficient, it’s about ending the mentality that people need the biggest, baddest V-8.

The report also advocates strong government intervention to “push and pull” market forces in the necessary direction. It doesn’t matter how many hybrids automakers build, what matters is the penetration of those hybrids (and electric cars) into the market. This could take several decades, which, the study basically says, is why it should have started yesterday.

We Can Cut Fuel Consumption 50 Percent in 25 Years (Autopia)