On a major international venue, no...but patents do stop the "little guy" dead in their tracks from taking what is known to work and re-introducing it into the marketplace...yes, it is known as a design improvement patent but, you can't fight a conglomerate.

Well, there is much more to it than stopping what consumers desire even on an international aspect.....including the oil company involvement......if the market was drop oil usage continuously for 2 years at 5%, the oil glut would be huge....Bank of the West (for example) owns about 10% of the US refined oil reserves.....the banks shareholders would loose big $......

But lets look at something a little different but along the same lines.....My dad was one of the engineers in the early days of the space program...and in the 50's, parts of Europe's air became so polluted, the respiratory/cardiac related illnesses and deaths grew at such an alarming rate, the English government contracted with numerous engineering firms (internationally) to address the immediate and long term energy consumption requirements...with a focus to clean up the air.

My dad was one of the engineers who worked on the "solar aspect"....there were numerous companies in the US involved....including Delmar Engineering, Hughes, Litton and GE. The same solar panels people put on their house today were developed during this time primarily from the space program & for this project in Europe. They developed the low voltage coffee pots, toasters, etc. (9v & 12v), which later found themselves in motorhomes, etc. By reducing the load through increasing the efficiency of common appliances, of course that would reduce demand.....and when taking into account Europe's high voltage & amperage for appliances even to this day and realize that back in the 50's these reductions were actually fully implementable....that we do not have to begin to do the math on. but more importantly, Litton & GE figured out how to store electricity for up to 2 years (up through the 70's the max storage capability was about 6 months for most power generation storage)......now of course, the world had great interest in this project...and while the air was not perfect, within months of implementing the immediate controls for industrial output, the human capitol toll was significantly reduced and continued up through the 1960's.

A final report was submitted to the major international leaders...my dad worked on that report......in theory, if we re-engineered our appliances to low voltage/amps, with the test beds completed, we (the US) could 1) reduce our electrical demand and 2) with the use of 3 storage tanks about the size that you see in an oil tank farm, we could store enough electricity to power the US for 2 full years.

Much of this technology was put to incredible use in military and space related operations......but with exception of the motorhome and IT related industries, little has been implemented from a consumer standpoint.

Heck, in 1974, the first full size military drone aircraft was successfully launched and completed successfully all flight maneuvers....can you imagine, looking at the general public and telling them their next new commercial aircraft will be without a flight crew? I doubt if they would have much in the way of passengers (except the ones who just want to be on the first flight- WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE)!!!

 

Name of report?

 

im all about making vehicles as fuel economic as I can (heck I even plan to try and squeez the diesel for all i can get but I read the article and call bull funk on it! reads quite fake to me...

 

It's a scam. There is only so much energy available from a gallon of fuel. But, what are they complaining about?

It's amazing stuff when you stop and think about it. Would you push, pull or drag 5,000 pounds 23 miles for $2.44?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

 

2014 Volkswagen XL1 First Drive ? Review ? Car and Driver

My dad has a 2000 Saturn SL-1 4banger 1.9L 5speed 4door and gets 45MPG. They can probably be found for under 1k but probably need the diff pin welded and the bell housing fixed.

 

posting the car and driver article will not make the fact any different. VW themselves said it is a lie and the best the car will get is around 150 mpg, and that is combined with the electric motor doing most of the work.
i think the best a vehicle without electric power assist will lever get is around 100 mpg.