How are car companies designing cars to be more fuel efficient?

Question

How are car companies designing cars to be more fuel efficient?

Answer 1

One way that they tried but the market did not seem to accept was to make smaller engines.  I once had a Geo Metro with a 3 cylinder engine, got great gas milage 45MPG.  Unfortunately they don't make them any more.  I wish they would, I would buy another one.

Answer 2

The technology has been around since the 1950's to have cars that can get 100 mpg in fuel usage.  The Oil companies bought the patten number because gas was so cheap they feared they wouldn't make any profits.   They have the ability to help but they refuse to do so.  It wouldn't be good for business.

Answer 3

The automakers are trying to go with lighter alloys, composites and plastics to reduce the weight of vehicles.  If they can reduce the weight, higher gas mileages will result.  Metals, such as aluminum and magnesium are being increasingly used to reduce weight.  You ever notice that cars typically don't use those heavy steel bumpers anymore?  Bumpers are now made with a combination of materials to reduce the weight of the car, but these materials need to remain strong enough to maintain safety standards.

Answer 4

They're making regular gas cars lighter.

They're also working on developing plug-in electric/gas hybrids and fully electric cars, which will be more efficient than regular hybrids (and regular gas cars, of course).

Here is one company that's working on both a fully electric car (Aptera typ-1e) and a plug-in gas/electric hybrid (Aptera typ-1h).

http://www.aptera.com/about.php

Basically they're moving away from the internal combustion engine toward the more efficient electric motor.

Answer 5

We have nearly reached the limits of efficiency in internal combustion engines and transmissions.  The only thing left is the weight of the car itself.  Lighter is better if fuel efficiency is your main concern.