Hybrid Car Review

While spin has become expected at all levels of businesses, it's always fun to see spin back. Green Car Congress published a report today on the press release from GM over the latest EPA report on fuel economy for the car company. GM wants you to know that they have more models getting 30+ miles per gallon than any other automaker out there.

Green Car Congress makes the obvious point. GM produces and sells more models than any other automaker. With 52 out of 298 models getting 30 mpg or better on the highway, GM gets only 17.45% of its cars over that mark. In comparison, Honda gets 45.5% of their models over that mark by having 15 of their 33 models getting high marks for fuel economy.

Personally, I think it would better to break down the models by class, and then see where the automakers fall out. It's fairly easy for carmakers to get the subcompacts to get great fuel economy (see the Yaris or Fit, for example). So perhaps we should look at the percentage of cars being sold on differing scales. For instance, percentage of subcompacts getting 40 mpg or better, then compacts at 35 mpg or better and so on. GM sells more SUVs than Honda does, for instance, so it might be nice to compare apples to apples.

Either way, I found the discussion and points made by GCC enlightening. Take a look:Green Car Congress: Playing with Percentages: 30+ mpg Highway US Models for 2007