Small changes in your tires and vehicle weight can affect your gas-mileage, so keep your car running efficiently.
Heavy duty trucks are generally defined as those with a gross vehicle weight of 15 tons or more.
The car's flat, floorpan-mounted battery pack (85 kWh) accounts for about 30% of the significant total vehicle weight, 4, 642 pounds.
Given today's materials and know-how, automotive engineers reckon a 10% reduction in vehicle weight yields a 6% improvement in efficiency.
The average vehicle weight has gone up by about 900 pounds over that time, from 3, 200 pounds to almost 4, 100 pounds.
For instance, the Audi A8 not only has a 372 horsepower engine that provides exhilarating driving characteristics, but it also has an aluminum space frame that lowers vehicle weight considerably versus a steel chassis.
The bodywork is stretched tight between the front and rear fenders, and the rear fender is less pronounced than that of the front, reinforcing the concentration of vehicle weight over the driven wheels for maximum traction.
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This means that batteries could be smaller with the resulting reduction in electric vehicle cost and weight.
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The front-wheel drive LEAF again uses a dedicated EV platform with batteries housed in the floor for optimum vehicle packaging and weight distribution.
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An overall lighter weight vehicle allows a shipper to pack more goods in a truck and still stay within fuel standards, which will increase freight movement.
Placing the batteries in the floor of the vehicle provides optimum weight distribution to help enhance handling and allows for five-passenger seating by not intruding into the cabin space.
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If the computer programming is supple enough and the on-board processing is fast enough, engineers can now virtually nullify effects caused by vehicle height, weight, roll centers and center of mass.
So it comes down to this: if half the increase in efficiency demanded by the new CAFE requirements is to come from further improvements in the power-train, then the other half will have to come from reductions in a vehicle's weight.
In addition to a flat road tax, Plug-In America also thinks a tax based on the vehicle miles traveled plus weight should be considered, and that a suite of incentives -- both financial and nonfinancial -- should be enacted to spur EV adoption.
Ford has developed a prototype vehicle--the P2000--that replaces steel and cast iron in several key components as part of an effort to reduce the weight of a vehicle by 40%, which would create dramatic fuel efficiencies.
Proponents of the legislation, after all, admittedly supported it as a vehicle to squeeze tobacco firms under the weight of FDA regulation.
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German national Mr Markus, 39, also faces charges of using a vehicle with defective brakes and breaching a 7.5 tonne weight limit.
With neither a battery nor a starter motor--they add too much weight--the only way to get this vehicle going is by push-starting it.
The CPS said in February he was to be charged with dangerous driving, using a vehicle with defective brakes and breaching a 7.5 tonne weight limit.
With neither a battery nor a starter motor--they add too much weight--the only way to get this vehicle going is by push-starting it with a Chevy Suburban.
That prompts two immediate questions: how much will such a weight reduction add to prices, and will hard-won gains in vehicle safety be sacrificed in the process?
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