SUVs affect on oil demand...?

willfxp · April 14, 2005

I was doing a calculation... affects of big SUVs on our oil 'crisis'... If anyone has a comment on my numbers, let me know. I'm horrible with math!

I took a Toyota Prius (Avg. 55.5 MPG) and a Ford F150 ( #1 selling vehicle in the US Avg. 16MPG ). I took 15,000 miles per year, and rounded to 41 miles per day. I took the difference and found out that the F150 uses almost 2 gallons more per day than a hybrid. So one million SUVs uses two million gallons. Divide 2million with 55 (55 gallons per barrel ) and we have 36,000 barrels of oil we use per day. Currently, the US uses 20million barrels of oil a day... Rough calculation, we will need to replace six million SUVs with hybrids to reduce our oil needs by 1%. Let's take off one million SUVs for errors in my numbers. If we switched over 5 million owners of SUVs, we will lower our oil consumption by 1%.

Think SUVs are really the problem?

Numbers for MPG were taken from autos.msn.com, 15,000 miles is the average number of miles we drive. 20 million gallons per day is from http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/invest/extra/P115096.asp (last line). A lot of rough estimates and guesses, but I don't think it will change my numbers too much. If you really want, think 5 million SUVs per 1%. Oh yeah, Ford sold about 1 million F150's last year. National average was 1 in 8 people drove an SUV.

-w

willfxp · April 14, 2005

One more thing... I'm talking about replacing SUVs if they can be replaced with a hybrid Prius... Many many GOOD uses for SUVs that cannot be currently replaced by a hybrid.

Mark_in_Tulsa · April 14, 2005

There is only 42 gallons in a barrel.

This is how a barrel is broken down.

"Copy and pasted"

What A Barrel Of Crude Oil Makes

Product Gallons per barrel

gasoline 19.5

distillate fuel oil 9.2

(Includes both home heating oil and diesel fuel)

kerosene-type jet fuel 4.1

residual fuel oil

(Heavy oils used as fuels in industry, marine transportation and for

electric power generation) 2.3

liquefied refinery gasses 1.9

still gas 1.9

coke 1.8

asphalt and road oil 1.3

petrochemical feedstocks 1.2

lubricants 0.5

kerosene 0.2

other 0.3

Tucson_02Silverado · April 14, 2005

The Toyota Prius does not get 55MPG. Toyota has been quiet in telling the obnoxious Hollywood stars that have the Prius...sorry you are only getting 38-42MPG...too bad.

snoman · April 14, 2005

The Toyota Prius does not get 55MPG. Toyota has been quiet in telling the obnoxious Hollywood stars that have the Prius...sorry you are only getting 38-42MPG...too bad.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I know a few Prius owners and they may get only 40 to 45 on the highway but they get about the same of better in city driving because of regenerative braking. THe kick butt in city MPG big time. My son has a old tercel they we replaced the engine in with a bone yard specail (he bought it with a bad engine) and he got 44 mpg on trip with it. Not bad for a 15 year old car with a 16 year old engine and a carb too.

Shawn T · April 14, 2005

I was doing a calculation... affects of big SUVs on our oil 'crisis'... If anyone has a comment on my numbers, let me know. I'm horrible with math!

I took a Toyota Prius (Avg. 55.5 MPG) and a Ford F150 ( #1 selling vehicle in the US Avg. 16MPG ). I took 15,000 miles per year, and rounded to 41 miles per day. I took the difference and found out that the F150 uses almost 2 gallons more per day than a hybrid. So one million SUVs uses two million gallons. Divide 2million with 55 (55 gallons per barrel ) and we have 36,000 barrels of oil we use per day. Currently, the US uses 20million barrels of oil a day... Rough calculation, we will need to replace six million SUVs with hybrids to reduce our oil needs by 1%. Let's take off one million SUVs for errors in my numbers. If we switched over 5 million owners of SUVs, we will lower our oil consumption by 1%.

Think SUVs are really the problem?

Numbers for MPG were taken from autos.msn.com, 15,000 miles is the average number of miles we drive. 20 million gallons per day is from http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/invest/extra/P115096.asp (last line). A lot of rough estimates and guesses, but I don't think it will change my numbers too much. If you really want, think 5 million SUVs per 1%. Oh yeah, Ford sold about 1 million F150's last year. National average was 1 in 8 people drove an SUV.

-w

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

willfxp,

Great research. There are so many credentials to support your arguement. These tree-huggers just had to pick something out to bitch about. The fact of the matter is that they need transportation too. The personal automobile is only skimming the surface of crude oil consumption. They need to give up food, clothes, and perishables that come in on barges. They use tons of fuel. Let's see them lobby against that. The problem with jackasses like "SUV haters" is that they have nothing better to do, and they probably just can't afford one.

willfxp · April 14, 2005

There is only 42 gallons in a barrel.

I ALWAYS get that wrong. I have no idea where 55 keeps coming in. Thanks. I'll re-do my calculations when I have a minute.

The Toyota Prius does not get 55MPG. Toyota has been quiet in telling the obnoxious Hollywood stars that have the Prius...sorry you are only getting 38-42MPG...too bad.

I took the information from autos.msn.com... I believe these were the federal numbers from whatever and were not accurate in a real-world environments. But these numbers do help in comparing cars to each other. Who would think that a F150 was getting 14-18?

snoman · April 14, 2005

I was doing a calculation... affects of big SUVs on our oil 'crisis'... If anyone has a comment on my numbers, let me know. I'm horrible with math!

I took a Toyota Prius (Avg. 55.5 MPG) and a Ford F150 ( #1 selling vehicle in the US Avg. 16MPG ). I took 15,000 miles per year, and rounded to 41 miles per day. I took the difference and found out that the F150 uses almost 2 gallons more per day than a hybrid. So one million SUVs uses two million gallons. Divide 2million with 55 (55 gallons per barrel ) and we have 36,000 barrels of oil we use per day. Currently, the US uses 20million barrels of oil a day... Rough calculation, we will need to replace six million SUVs with hybrids to reduce our oil needs by 1%. Let's take off one million SUVs for errors in my numbers. If we switched over 5 million owners of SUVs, we will lower our oil consumption by 1%.

Think SUVs are really the problem?

Numbers for MPG were taken from autos.msn.com, 15,000 miles is the average number of miles we drive. 20 million gallons per day is from http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/invest/extra/P115096.asp (last line). A lot of rough estimates and guesses, but I don't think it will change my numbers too much. If you really want, think 5 million SUVs per 1%. Oh yeah, Ford sold about 1 million F150's last year. National average was 1 in 8 people drove an SUV.

-w

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

willfxp,

Great research. There are so many credentials to support your arguement. These tree-huggers just had to pick something out to bitch about. The fact of the matter is that they need transportation too. The personal automobile is only skimming the surface of crude oil consumption. They need to give up food, clothes, and perishables that come in on barges. They use tons of fuel. Let's see them lobby against that. The problem with jackasses like "SUV haters" is that they have nothing better to do, and they probably just can't afford one.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Why is someone who thinks is stupid to get 12 to 14mpg commuting (which is pretty stupid anyway in today energy market) a tree hugger? You better hug them trees too because they are about the only thing that is slowing the rise of CO2 in the atmosphere now and they are being cut down too.

Shawn T · April 14, 2005

I was doing a calculation... affects of big SUVs on our oil 'crisis'... If anyone has a comment on my numbers, let me know. I'm horrible with math!

I took a Toyota Prius (Avg. 55.5 MPG) and a Ford F150 ( #1 selling vehicle in the US Avg. 16MPG ). I took 15,000 miles per year, and rounded to 41 miles per day. I took the difference and found out that the F150 uses almost 2 gallons more per day than a hybrid. So one million SUVs uses two million gallons. Divide 2million with 55 (55 gallons per barrel ) and we have 36,000 barrels of oil we use per day. Currently, the US uses 20million barrels of oil a day... Rough calculation, we will need to replace six million SUVs with hybrids to reduce our oil needs by 1%. Let's take off one million SUVs for errors in my numbers. If we switched over 5 million owners of SUVs, we will lower our oil consumption by 1%.

Think SUVs are really the problem?

Numbers for MPG were taken from autos.msn.com, 15,000 miles is the average number of miles we drive. 20 million gallons per day is from http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/invest/extra/P115096.asp (last line). A lot of rough estimates and guesses, but I don't think it will change my numbers too much. If you really want, think 5 million SUVs per 1%. Oh yeah, Ford sold about 1 million F150's last year. National average was 1 in 8 people drove an SUV.

-w

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

willfxp,

Great research. There are so many credentials to support your arguement. These tree-huggers just had to pick something out to bitch about. The fact of the matter is that they need transportation too. The personal automobile is only skimming the surface of crude oil consumption. They need to give up food, clothes, and perishables that come in on barges. They use tons of fuel. Let's see them lobby against that. The problem with jackasses like "SUV haters" is that they have nothing better to do, and they probably just can't afford one.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Why is someone who thinks is stupid to get 12 to 14mpg commuting (which is pretty stupid anyway in today energy market) a tree hugger? You better hug them trees too because they are about the only thing that is slowing the rise of CO2 in the atmosphere now and they are being cut down too.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Shut up! I am so sick of you chiming in on me. I was simply agreeing with a POINT he made. Don't give me a lecture on trees. Who gives a sh!t what kind of mileage you want to get. Why do people like you come on a TRUCK forum and bitch about gas mileage. I will be sure to plow over some baby pines on my four wheeler this weekend while I am shed horn hunting. Your word is not testiment, and you are the one who stirs the pot, with everyone.

willfxp · April 14, 2005

Shut up! I am so sick of you chiming in on me. I was simply agreeing with a POINT he made. Don't give me a lecture on trees. Who gives a sh!t what kind of mileage you want to get. Why do people like you come on a TRUCK forum and bitch about gas mileage. I will be sure to plow over some baby pines on my four wheeler this weekend while I am shed horn hunting. Your word is not testiment, and you are the one who stirs the pot, with everyone.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ah, c'mon people. Let's not be angry here...

What is funny is that I would hope to consider myself a "tree-hugger". Just because I drive a truck doesn't mean I don't respect the environment. If anything, my off road adventures made me become more of a tree hugger than ever before. What I try to do is analyze from an objective point of view. Just trying to make sure us tree huggers are fighting the right battle that will make a difference.

sstimothy, Let me recommend a site to you: http://www.treadlightly.org/

snoman · April 15, 2005

I was doing a calculation... affects of big SUVs on our oil 'crisis'... If anyone has a comment on my numbers, let me know. I'm horrible with math!

I took a Toyota Prius (Avg. 55.5 MPG) and a Ford F150 ( #1 selling vehicle in the US Avg. 16MPG ). I took 15,000 miles per year, and rounded to 41 miles per day. I took the difference and found out that the F150 uses almost 2 gallons more per day than a hybrid. So one million SUVs uses two million gallons. Divide 2million with 55 (55 gallons per barrel ) and we have 36,000 barrels of oil we use per day. Currently, the US uses 20million barrels of oil a day... Rough calculation, we will need to replace six million SUVs with hybrids to reduce our oil needs by 1%. Let's take off one million SUVs for errors in my numbers. If we switched over 5 million owners of SUVs, we will lower our oil consumption by 1%.

Think SUVs are really the problem?

Numbers for MPG were taken from autos.msn.com, 15,000 miles is the average number of miles we drive. 20 million gallons per day is from http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/invest/extra/P115096.asp (last line). A lot of rough estimates and guesses, but I don't think it will change my numbers too much. If you really want, think 5 million SUVs per 1%. Oh yeah, Ford sold about 1 million F150's last year. National average was 1 in 8 people drove an SUV.

-w

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

willfxp,

Great research. There are so many credentials to support your arguement. These tree-huggers just had to pick something out to bitch about. The fact of the matter is that they need transportation too. The personal automobile is only skimming the surface of crude oil consumption. They need to give up food, clothes, and perishables that come in on barges. They use tons of fuel. Let's see them lobby against that. The problem with jackasses like "SUV haters" is that they have nothing better to do, and they probably just can't afford one.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Why is someone who thinks is stupid to get 12 to 14mpg commuting (which is pretty stupid anyway in today energy market) a tree hugger? You better hug them trees too because they are about the only thing that is slowing the rise of CO2 in the atmosphere now and they are being cut down too.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Shut up! I am so sick of you chiming in on me. I was simply agreeing with a POINT he made. Don't give me a lecture on trees. Who gives a sh!t what kind of mileage you want to get. Why do people like you come on a TRUCK forum and bitch about gas mileage. I will be sure to plow over some baby pines on my four wheeler this weekend while I am shed horn hunting. Your word is not testiment, and you are the one who stirs the pot, with everyone.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You are the one that got angry not me. I was just asking why anyone that does not like a gas hog is a tree hugger and I guess I hit a nerve. I like my SUV's but none of them are daily commuters either. The tree hugging 4 banger basically pay for themselves in gas money saved so that the end of 5 years or more I have SUV's AND 4 bangers (extra wheels) that are paid for rather than just a SUV with lots of miles on it and due a expensive replacement after 15,000 to 20,000 dollars of fuel has been poured through it too. BTW, every 4 banger I have had in recent times has gone well past the 200k mark too without any fuss. I can keep my SUV's 10 years and more (I currently have three 4x4's too) with ease because I am not running them into the ground while empting my wallet to do it and they last a long time because of it. That does not make me a tree hugger but rather a smart shopper and getting more value for my dollar. My favorite 4x4 pickup is actually 26 years old and still going and only has 109k on it which is nothing for a truck that age and some of those miles have been very hard indeed and if I want to throw rock, gravel of wood in it or drive it thru the brush, I just do it and not give it another thought.

biochemist · April 15, 2005

There are 55 gallons in a drum...not a barrel. Later,

biochemist · April 15, 2005

Hello, thought I would run a few numbers too...they are not as rosy as the original post, but look, the main idea is this...the average car ~28 MPG, Truck/SUV ~ 16 MPG....that is a factor of ~1.8. So if everyone switched to cars we would reduce our consumption by ~27%...try the calculation for yourself. Now, keep in mind all these calculations are from 2004 Sales figures which state ~50:50 Cars to SUV/Trucks. Remember there are many more cars/trucks on the road than this figure from last year alone represents ~ 17 million sold total in 2004. But let us say for now that the equilibrium will be 50:50 cars:SUV/Trucks...What people do not realize is the 20 million barrels a day...less than half for transportation. The oil we use is all around us, CD's, synthetic rubbers, paints...most all the chemicals produced to make plastics come from oil...benzene, olefins...polymers...all around us! The keyboard you type on...yep, started from oil. Where do you think the chemicals used to make nylon comes from? Yep, oil! So the environmental crowd is semi-right and misleading at the same time, driving larger vehicles is not that great for oil consumption, but, oil is used for much, much, much more than that. We should also be talking about efficiency and normalized energy output...SUV's and Truck's do not look that bad when you talk about that!

Also, most of the pollution is from heavy equipment/earthmovers and such, not your DMax or 8.1..., and some may not want to hear this, but none of that even really matters....the global warming hypothesis/theory is not grounded in sound science as many of you may think. It is difficult to say this when you only have ~100 years of good data to work with...yes the ice is melting...BUT we are finding fossils and such in these melted places...SO, doesn't that give evidence at some point long ago the ice was only that thick? Think about it for a second...why when the ice recedes a bit is it your fault for driving a Suburban...obviously the ice had been at that thickness some other point in the history of the world long before cars and SUV/Trucks were on the planet...so; it must simply be a cycle...the world's temperature is just going through a cycle, nothing more, nothing less. Fluctuations of a degree or so over the last 100 years or so and the temp. has not gone up in the last 20 years either...hit the peak ~1940 and DECLINED, and has remained steady or slightly decreasing since…come on! All of nature has cycles, why not the earths temps? All of this just happens to be coming about now when everyone wants to drive a Truck/SUV and the environmentalists have a problem with it. It is funny how these people change their stories too...when it was bone chilling cold in some spots recently they revised their hypothesis to state colder temps as possible evidence for global warming...look it up, you can see for yourself, if you do you will see weak data to support the claims they make. Bottom line, drive what you feel comfortable with, do not feel bad. We are not really warming the earth and we are not going to run out of gas anytime soon....If you are that concerned get a Westers Tune and increase your MPG and driving pleasure ...hope this helps, later,

Mattt · April 15, 2005

"Man in his arrogance thinks he is capable of destroying & controlling nature" -Anonymous

Thats the best antidote to your local enviro-nazi. Tell them to get down off their high horse.

When are we going to start using our own natural resources????? There is so much oil in this country, but because of a few WHINERS who control the media and the argument, we remain beholden to foreign oil. SAD!

Self Sufficiency isnt the Socialist/Liberal way

biochemist · April 15, 2005

"Man in his arrogance thinks he is capable of destroying & controlling nature" -Anonymous

Thats the best antidote to your local enviro-nazi. Tell them to get down off their high horse.

When are we going to start using our own natural resources????? There is so much oil in this country, but because of a few WHINERS who control the media and the argument, we remain beholden to foreign oil. SAD!

Self Sufficiency isnt the Socialist/Liberal way

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well said Mattt...one of the main reasons we "depend" on foreign oil is simple...just imagine what would happen to Saudi Arabia and others if we stopped buying oil from them...you think they hate us now! We would be responsible for making those countries slide into real poverty as if they are not quite there already. Now, with that said, I still think we should look out for ourselves first, no other country cares about us and we are the world's largest charitable organization! I agree, let's take care of ourselves and use our own resources, Alaska would provide much help with this endeavor...later,