The Top 10 Highest MPG Cars On Sale Today (Page 2)

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The Top 10 Highest MPG Cars On Sale Today Page 2

Antony Ingram

21,572 views Oct 20, 2011

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2012 Honda Civic Hybrid, road test, Spring 2011

HI-RES GALLERY: 2012 Honda Civic Hybrid, road test, Spring 2011

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2012 Honda Civic Hybrid - 44 MPG

Honda also has a proven track record with hybrids, having been there from the start with the 1999 Insight. The Civic Hybrid is its most efficient model at the moment, beating the cheaper Insight - at least until the 2012 Insight arrives.

2012 Toyota Prius V - 42 MPG

Toyota's 7-seat Prius sneaks straight into the top 10 according to the EPA's figures, meaning larger families can finally enjoy the great gas mileage Prius drivers have enjoyed for years. 44 MPG city should make those short trips a breeze.

2012 Lexus CT 200h - 42 MPG

The Lexus CT 200h might be a Prius in fancy clothes but that still gives it Prius-like efficiency. The trade off for slightly lower figures than the regular Prius is the luxurious interior and strong Lexus image.

2011 Honda Insight - 41 MPG

The Insight made it onto our Cheap Fuel Efficiency list last month for costing only $18,200 and managing 43 MPG highway. Think of it as a cheaper Prius and you won't be too wide of the mark.

2012 Ford Fusion Hybrid/Lincoln MkZ - 39 MPG

The Fusion and MkZ just scrape into the list to add to the tally of domestic fuel-sippers. Both are much cheaper than the Chevrolet Volt and if you do a lot of longer journeys, you won't miss the Volt's all-electric range either. Ford's hybrid technology has been well proven in New York and San Francisco taxi fleets.

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HI-RES GALLERY: 2012 Honda Civic Hybrid, road test, Spring 2011

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Comments (10)

John Briggs Posted: 10/20/2011 10:21am PDT

Always interesting when you mix ICE and hybrids in the same list.

One more data point according to the EPA.
Mitsubishi i $540/year fuel (@$0.12/KWH)
Toyota Prius $1029/year fuel (@3.43/gallon).

The Prius cost 2X to fuel compared to the "i". Of course, the Prius is larger, less expensive to buy (I think, depending on rebates), and has a much larger range. Hmmm but it might also be more polluting, noiser, and less fun to drive.

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Chris O Posted: 10/20/2011 10:59am PDT

MPGe was invented to compare energy consumption of vehicles with different energy sources but it seems like a rather pointless exercise. The Leaf may be more energy efficient than the Prius but it's not like the same amount of gasoline would get you more miles with a Leaf since obviously it can't run on gasoline. So what exactly is the point of translating a vehicle's energy consumption in a gasoline equivalent if that vehicle can't actually run on gasoline?

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John Briggs Posted: 10/20/2011 11:20am PDT

I am with you on that one.

Perhaps, for better or worst, people have become familiar with MPG and the EPA felt a desperate need to make MPGe.

The Europeans went another direction, grams CO2/km. Of course that has its own problems because it is hard to know how much CO2 is produced from each KWH of electricity in a complex electricity grid.

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Antony Ingram Posted: 10/20/2011 11:36am PDT

"Perhaps, for better or worst, people have become familiar with MPG and the EPA felt a desperate need to make MPGe."

I suspect you're right. People like the familiar, and EVs are strange enough for most already without having an entirely different method of calculating economy.

As a European, I don't like g/km of CO2, mainly because I'm taxed on it. And since CO2 is directly linked to the fuel you burned, it means I'm being taxed on fuel TWICE. And the CO2 tax is indiscriminate of how much fuel I actually use, unlike regular fuel duty.

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John Briggs Posted: 10/20/2011 4:57pm PDT

Thanks for the added info.

How does the CO2 tax work? Is it a yearly tax regardless of how much you drive?

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Antony Ingram Posted: 10/21/2011 2:50am PDT

Essentially. Pre-2001 it was based on engine size. £130 a year sub-1549cc, £215/yr over 1549cc. Since then, it's been CO2 based.

Full details here: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/HowToTaxYourVehicle/DG_10012524

So you could potentially pay zero in tax if you had a Prius and drove 20k miles a year, and pay £460 a year tax if you drove a Range Rover 20 miles a year.

I don't mind paying duty on fuel as it's directly proportional to how much fuel you use. CO2-based tax is indiscriminate and arbitrary.

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Antony Ingram Posted: 10/21/2011 2:51am PDT

Shorter link to UK tax site here: http://bit.ly/9WPpxC

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John Briggs Posted: 10/21/2011 9:50am PDT

Tax policy can be very strange indeed. I suppose many places around the world charge sales tax when you buy a car. We have that here in Massachusetts as well.

However, we also have something called "excise" tax that we might pay EVERY year based on the value of the car. For an older car, it might be only $100/year, but for a newer car it might be $1000/year.

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Chris O Posted: 10/20/2011 12:11pm PDT

I think the fact that MPGe appeals to something people already understand is what makes it so misleading. It will make people believe that the Leaf is a better car than the Prius because it's more efficient; what they might not realize is that the fact the Leaf gets more mileage from a gallon of gasoline's worth of energy is neither here nor there because there is no way to get that gasoline's energy content in a Leaf's battery without loosing more than half of it in the conversion process.

So yes, the Leaf is a better car than the Prius, but not because it uses a gallon gasoline's worth of energy more efficient, but because it doesn't use that gallon of gasoline at all.

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John Briggs Posted: 10/20/2011 4:59pm PDT

I think you are on to something here.

For me, it is fact that electrons can be made in many ways like wind, solar, and wave. Gasoline pretty much has to be dug up out of the ground and that ground may be in some other country. When the gasoline is consumed, it creates more problems.

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