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Eberhard 15 (1:18)
Topic(s): Auto Industry / Car Culture / Environment
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Video Transcript
It's true if you look at even the companies like Toyota,
Toyota's corporate average fuel economy today is lower than it
was 10 years ago. It's lower despite the fact that they make
Prius' and Hybrids. Their corporate average fuel economy has
gone down and that's not because of anything Toyota has done
particularly, it's because Americans in general have chosen to
buy bigger Toyotas. On average we prefer to buy the Land
Cruiser to the Prius. And that drives the gas mileage because
we've chosen to buy bigger and bigger and bigger cars. If you
look at any particular size or class of car, if you look at
little compact cars, mid-size cars, whatever in any given
class, that class of car has gotten more efficient for all the
car companies—for Ford, for General Motors, and for
Toyota - consistently for the last 20 years. But, as it
happens, Americans have chosen to buy bigger and more gas
guzzling cars every year.
I suspect that will change, by the way. I mean, I got my
drivers license in 1978. In 1978 it was just after
the—just in the middle of the big 1970s oil crisis. My
first car was a 1968 Ford LTD. It had 45,000 miles on the
thing, it was in perfect condition. I paid $500 for it. I had
my pick—I could have had big old Cadillacs, Lincolns,
Mercurys, the big giant cars were essentially free because
nobody wanted them. And we may reach that day again when we
realize that these big SUVs are not really what we should be
driving.
