Fuel Efficiency: Is it Actually Improving?

While doing research for a paper about oil I came across some interesting facts about cars and their fuel mileage. In recent years due to the drastic increases in gas prices many people have been switching to FlexFuel cars. These cars run on a fuel called E-85 which is a mixture of 85% ethanol and 15% petroleum (Here is a link to an article about FlexFuel cars). 

People tend to think that FlexFuel is a recent technology but I was surprised to learn that that is not exactly true. The first FlexFuel car was actually a version of the Model T Ford made in 1908. In addition to that, I was equally surprised to learn that the original Model T actually achieved better fuel mileage than a 2008 Ford pick up truck. Henry Ford predicted the transition to alternate fuel sources a while ago. He said in an interview with the New York Times "The fuel of the future is going to come from fruit... There is fuel in every bit of vegetable matter that can be fermented." The idea of using corn and other produce as a means to fuel cars with clean burning alcohol is not a new one, but for some reason it has not become a popular way to power cars. Ethanol burns very clean and in doing so lessens the harmful emissions that are being released into the atmosphere.

Even though the Model T and a Ford pick up are not really comparable interns of size and weight I would have expected that with a hundred years of technological advances we could have made our cars a little bit more efficient. 

For more information see link

http://eco-chick.com/2008/10/1467/1908-ford-model-t-vs-2008-ford-pick-up/