fuel efficiency

In an automotive sector strained by recession, lay-offs, bankruptcies, the credit crunch and recalls, one bright spot over the last year has been the move among corporations to more fuel efficient fleets.

Poland Springs Water, a brand of Nestle Waters, has been greening its fleet since 2007, and seeing big savings as a result. It all started when Chris McKenna moved from warehouse manager to fleet manager at Poland Springs. He had been using biodiesel in the warehouse yard trucks and thought it might be worth testing for the fleet.

Who hasn't been enraged to read about how Ford and G.M. can make perfectly good little gas sippers for Europe, but just can't bring themselves to make a fuel efficient car for us back home?

Well, now that they need some funding from us, here's an idea. Let's fund Detroit just to set up their efficient European car factories — back here, where they are really needed. Let's get some better gas mileage out of their money troubles.

Apparently, it only costs $75 million to completely retool a plant, to produce an efficient little car instead of the gas-guzzling behemoth they were fobbing off on us fools all these years.

America’s long love affair with the SUV is officially dead, it seems.

This morning, Toyota announced that it’s dumping plans to produce the Highlander SUV at its brand-new plant in Mississippi. Instead, the factory will churn out the next generation of Prius Hybrids.

The decision reflects the exploding demand for hybrids and the plummeting market for SUVs and trucks, said Toyota.

Detroit’s Big 3 automakers may finally be gearing up for the auto efficiency age.

Too bad it took so friggin’ long.

Last week, international consulting firm Global Insight, predicted that the Big 3 will have to pay over twice as much as Japan’s top three automakers to meet America’s interim fuel economy standard of 31.6 mpg by 2015.

About $30.6 billion compared with $14.85 billion. And General Motors alone will have to spend $15 billion.

It’s obvious why.