We tend to have a narrow concept of fuel efficiency.... MPG is the standard and very subjective measurement, and it can be relatively meaningless number considering the different uses of vehicles. For example a car with 4 people on board making 20 mpg is equivalent of a single passenger vehicle making 80 mpg. Fuel burned for work done is what matters......not mileage. My pickup will do about 22 if I am conservative about how I drive. (full size extended cab 97 Chevy with automatic and 4.3 V6). It will average about 12 mpg pulling a trailer with about 3 tons of cargo, and that figure really reflects a far greater efficiency.. due to the work being done. A semi hauling 60,000 lbs of freight at 8 mpg is many times more efficient than a car hauling 200 lbs of meat making 40 mpg. 60 times as efficient to be exact!!
Now look at fuel consumption and examine other ways of viewing efficiency. A typical gas engine runs about 20% efficiency. The remainder of the fuel goes out as waste heat in the exhaust system and cooling system. 80% !!! Wow. And we all know that heat has no uses
.... Think about that a bit............. Perhaps instead of striving to maximize fuel efficiency in terms of MPG, and banging our heads against a wall of diminishing returns...... we should be looking at waste heat, and how to capture and utilize it. I spend around $1000 a year in propane. I also burn about 1000 gallons of gas per year of which 80% is wasted! I could heat my home with those 800 gallons of wasted gas!! There are other uses for energy than just moving cars down the road!! This is about overall fuel efficiency, and that should include capturing and using wasted energy. If you could capture 20 of those 80 percentage points of wasted heat, you are operating at 40% efficiency instead of 20%....... The same as doubling your gas mileage!!!!
GasSavers_Howard 
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