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White 1 (1:06)
Topic(s): Car Culture / Efficiency
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Video Transcript
Well, I think what's happened, since the 1990s, the mid to
late 1990s, when gasoline was basically a buck or less a
gallon, in other words, it was just cheap, it was ridiculously
cheap. What's happened since gas prices have gone up to more
like $2.50 to $3.00 a gallon, with this sort of annual summer
spike above three dollars a gallon, is that people, there has
been a shift at the margins toward smaller vehicles in the
United States. People who bought very big SUVs like the Ford
Expedition or the Chevy Suburban, at least some of those
people are now buying something smaller—partly because
they have the choice.
There's so-called crossover vehicles that are more, somewhat
more fuel efficient. But you know, it's all relative. I mean,
fuel efficient in this country is still anything that gets
over 20-25 miles a gallon. In Europe, it's a joke; I mean,
fuel efficient is 35 to 40 miles a gallon. So the United
States is still kind of an island of fantasy when it come to
the automobile and energy because our gas is cheap. And until
that changes, it's hard to see a really dramatic shift from,
sort of, what you see on the road today.
