6/28/2005: Most economical car

[Undertoad]

Thought it might be good to have this one, at a time when it looks like oil may be over $60/barrel soon.

In 7th grade I was taught the urban legend that the car companies had developed a carburetor that could do 50 miles per gallon (this was 1975, and 50 mpg was incredible), and were keeping it from the public. The teacher really believed the conspiracy theory. I believed it, too, because then I had been taught it by an actual school teacher. A few years later I learned that it was a legend and that we'd all been faked.

Well here it is... the entire Ananova story:

Swiss researchers have developed the world's most economical car that could circle the globe on only eight litres of fuel.

The Pac-Car uses hydrogen fuel cell technology and was developed by a team at the Swiss Federal Technical University headed by Professor Lino Guzzella.

He said the "car could drive around the earth only using eight litres of fuel", and that it could be ready for mass production in the next couple of years.

According to the back of my envelope, 1 earth per 8 liters is about 1000 miles per litre or about 250 miles per gallon. But it sure looks like they aren't hiding it, they're releasing photos of it and shooting for the market, etc. I guess the old legend really was false after all.