Fuel consumption vs. miles per gallon

January 19, 2009 · Filed Under Tax Incentives & Legislation, Transportation 

A jump from 14 to 16 mpg saves as much oil as a jump from 35 to 51 mpg, a NY Times editorial emphasized today. You may be tempted to do the math yourself just to prove it…

The reasoning is illustrated in the graph below of annual fuel consumption based on 12,000 vehicle miles. Fuel consumption is a non-linear function of miles per gallon, making it somewhat difficult to compare annual fuel costs of different vehicle types. Fuel consumption per mile or per 100 miles traveled, might be a better yardstick. But then again, this is not rocket science.

Anual Fuel Consumption vs. MPG

Related Links

hybridCARS.com: Chrysler Aspen Hybrid

NY Times: Energy Inefficient

Energy Analysis: The Concept of Fuel Economy: Does it Lead to Good Decisions?

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2 Responses to “Fuel consumption vs. miles per gallon”

  1. Vance on January 20th, 2009 4:41 am

    Great graph. I re-posted it on my blog (with a link back to your post) at the end of a very similar post I wrote referencing the same op-ed:

    http://live-from-beijing.blogspot.com/2009/01/fuel-economy-improvement-and-where-to.html

    -Vance

  2. fuel economy improvement and where to get bang for your buck « livefrombeijing on July 22nd, 2009 6:21 am

    [...] business, and personal perspectives. – Update 1/20/09: The Energy Analysis blog has a similar post about this issue, and includes the following relevant graph showing the non-linear relationship [...]

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