that's good, because they haven't been doing so well as a whole on CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy)
Corporate Average Fuel Economy
By Scott Doggett, Contributor
The Automotive News reported today:
"The latest government fuel economy report says 2008-model cars and trucks sold in the United States will average 26.8 mpg, up only slightly from 26.6 mpg in 2007.
"But one eye-popping number appears in the report: Tesla Motors, the upstart maker of an electric sports car, gets a 2008 corporate average fuel economy rating of 244 mpg. The federal CAFE standard for cars is 27.5 mpg.
"The figures show government may have more work to do to compare fairly the energy and environmental impact of electric vehicles with those that use gasoline. But Tesla's CAFE number is more than a curiosity. It could mean cash.
"Tesla Vice President Darryl Siry told Automotive News today the company is eager to sell its CAFE credits when trading begins. 'It's all upside for us,' he said."
All upside indeed. The Automotive News is a respected publication, but I had to see that report for myself. After 78 minutes of searching -- U.S. Transportation Department reports can be a witch to find on the Web -- I located the report, titled "Summary of Fuel Economy Performance, March 2008."
If you go to http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/portal/site/nh ... cdba046a0/ and scroll down about halfway, you'll find a link to the report in the tiniest font size.
Once the report opens, scroll down to page 7. And there, plain as day, you'll find the framed text appearing above.
Because Tesla currently produces only one vehicle -- its Roadster -- its CAFE figure also represents the government's official fuel-economy rating for the vehicle. If Tesla's next vehicle has a fuel-economy rating of, say, 234.0 mpg, its corporate average would come crashing down to 239.0 mpg from 244.0 today.
By comparison, the next-closest CAFE figure for the 2008 models in the domestic-passenger-car category is Honda at 35.2 mpg, followed by Toyota at 34.7 mpg and Nissan at 33.5. Bringing up the rear of the domestic-passenger-car category was General Motors at 29.4 mpg [***Note: Ford was only .1 better at 29.5***], followed by Chrysler at 29.3 mpg and at rock bottom: Subaru, at 28.7 mpg.
Posted by Scott Doggett July 18, 2008, 4:43 PM
http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradviso ... allon.html
(here's the link to the NHTSA report:
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/portal/nhtsa_s ... Associated Files/March_2008_CAFE_Summary.pdf
