Smart Car MPG

With the global awareness focused on conservation, it’s only natural that the quest for energy-efficient cars is on the minds of consumers as well as auto makers. Attempts to improve a car’s miles per gallon (MPG) range from the high tech – gas-electric hybrids, hydrogen fuel cells, solar cells – to the home-spun – bio-fuels like fryer grease and bio diesel.

Some of the more promising solutions to the MPG problem require extensive changes in the way vehicles are fueled and the infrastructure that feeds them, which is one reason that hydrogen and pure-electric cars have failed to catch on in the marketplace.

It’s no good having a super efficient car and nowhere to fill it up. Others, like the bio-fuel solutions, run into problems due to the basic physics of their power sources, which are just as environmentally damaging as the gasoline they were designed to replace.

Emerging on the market, however, is the Smart Car, which promises to provide an affordable solution. The Smart Car is a sub-compact car that earns the ’sub’ qualifier by being 30% smaller than its larger brethren. It’s also much lighter: about half the weight of cars in the compact category. These two facts are the key to one of the reasons why the Smart Car excels at fuel efficiency.

One of the major limiting factors in fuel efficiency for cars is the weight of the vehicle. No matter how efficient the engine and the fuel source, the mass of the vehicle is one of major factors that impacts how much energy is necessary to move an object. A heavier car requires more energy to power it, regardless of the energy source. By weighing significantly less than most other cars, the Smart Car gets a huge leg up on fuel efficiency.

Another reason the Smart Car is so efficient can be traced to its performance envelope. Performance envelope describes the types of conditions in which a vehicle is designed to operate. The speed at which the Smart Car is designed to operate are optimal for improved efficiency because of the aerodynamic design of the car itself.

Air resistance is the force you feel when you stick your head out of the window of a car. It’s very strong at fast speeds and gets much stronger the faster you go. The physics of the situation is simple: resistance increases with the square of the speed. Double your speed and you have four times as much resistance. Going from 45 miles per hour to 65 doubles the fuel consumption and halves the MPG (all other things equal). The Smart Car is designed to take advantage of this simple physics fact and operates at a speed that optimizes gas mileage.

In choosing a car, the MPG is becoming more important for consumers. The Smart Car is an example of innovative thinking that has led to a great product that will not only save money for the consumer but also contribute to the greater effort conserve energy.

There is a question on a lot of people’s minds today. Just how do these Smart Cars get such good MPG? With gasoline prices creeping back up, MPG is becoming more and more important. So, How does it work?

First, just take a look at the size, from front to back eight feet, just eight feet! Sort of reminds one of the old Nash Metropolitan from the 1950’s. The Smart Car is small and it’s light. There’s not a lot of heavy bulk to a Smart Car which saves fuel. Another fuel savings feature are the number of cylinders, three not four, less to guzzle gas.

The Smart Car is small, light, and has less cylinders. That does not sound very appealing does it? Well, remember, the object is to get better gas mileage. There are a lot of vehicles that will produce speed and flash, but not at 46MPG City and 68MPG Highway. Mercedes Benz, who by the way, makes the Smart Car has come up with another interesting feature to assist with good mileage. The Smart Car transmission is a manual transmission that works without a clutch. Oh, there is a clutch there and it can be used. But by not using the clutch and letting the car tell the driver when to shift, or shifting itself, the MPG gets even better.

It works this way: Use the clutch and put the Smart Car in first gear. Give the engine some gas to get it rolling, not a lot, just enough. Then let the engine take over, it will build up the speed slowly, remember we are all about saving fuel, and when the rpm’s are correct, it will back off so the driver can shift to the next gear without ever putting his or her foot on the accelerator or on the clutch. Sounds crazy, but big semi truckers do this all the time. They know at what RPM to shift into another gear and can do it without using the clutch, going both up and down the gears.

Horsepower is another reason the Smart Cars save fuel and get high MPG ratings. Smart Car has three body styles, the Pure, the Pulse, and the Passion. All three are available with the 61 horsepower engine, and the basic low end Pure model is also available with a 50 horsepower engine. In the UK and Canada, the Smart Car is also available with a diesel engine. This little jewel is getting a combined City/Highway aveage of 85.6 MPG.

If fuel economy is the goal, then a Smart Car is the answer. Smaller, lighter, less horsepower from fewer cylinders with a fuel efficient transmission, Smart Cars do get good MPG ratings. Of course, the better mileage race has only really started in the automobile industry. Volkswagen in Germany is right now working on a version of the Smart Car that is projected to achieve a combined City/Highway rating of 100 MPG. Undoubtedly, Toyota and Nissan, Ford and GM too are all working on their versions. Soon the main question for dealers will be “Just how far will this go on a gallon of gas?”