larger view

Actually, a bit more.  At Shell's yearly Eco-Marathon, the winner this year was a French team from St. Joseph La Joliverie, who went 7,148 miles on a single gallon of fuel.  It makes 4 dollar per gallon gas seem like a real bargain.

Of course, these cars will not be coming to a showroom near you anytime soon, but the ideas are out there.  One of the issues I'm sure is that construction costs probably make the price of a Tesla look like a Fit.  Another is that the vehicles are so light and fragile that any collision would likely turn any occupants into what was colorfully termed "street pizza" on another blog.

Everything I'm reading is saying that super-efficiency is great and that ethanol is great, but it's time to make the big switch from combustion to electric.  Lighter engines with less heat mean better miles per energy unit and tighter body construction which helps with aerodynamics.  Still, 7148 mpg?  Sweet.

BTW, I'll be trying to post more home repair stuff in the next few weeks.  If you've got a home repair issue or just want to talk about home stuff, this is the place.