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5 Most Fuel Efficient Cars For 2012

Fuel efficiency is one of the biggest selling points for any car manufacturer. With the rising costs of gas, consumers are beginning to forgo style and luxury in an effort to keep their cars on the road. If you’re thinking about buying a new car in the coming year, you can balance personal style with fuel efficiency. Here are the top 5 fuel efficient cars for 2012.

2012 Mitsubishi i-MiEV
One of the biggest niches in the car industry is electric cars. With this in mind, Mitsubishi is looking to corner the market with their 2012 i.-MiEV. With an average annual fuel cost of $540 and a massive 122 MPG rating, the i-MiEV is a huge contender in the market. The one downside is that this car is a sub-compact. This is a great car for getting around town, but not so much if you need a lot of room.

2012 Toyota Prius
The Prius has been one of the biggest names in hybrid vehicles and Toyota is bringing out their model with a bang. The 2012 Prius has more room than the i-MiEV, but is almost double the annual fuel cost. With a 50-MPG fuel rating, the Prius is still the leader in hybrid cars. The 2012 version of the Prius also adds a “plug-in” option for charging the electric component.

2012 Lexus CT 200h
With the rising need for more fuel-efficient cars, Lexus is attempting to corner the luxury market with their CT 200h. This sedan offers a 42 MPG ratting and has an annual fuel cost of about $1,221. Although it does not have the same MPG rating as the Prius or the i-MiEV, it makes up for it in features and luxury.

2012 Scion iQ
The hatchback is making a comeback with the Scion iQ. The iQ comes with a 37 MPG rating and has annual fuel cost of $1,385. Although the hatchback is not a hybrid or an electric model, the car makes up for it with the MPG rating. Since it is a hatchback, there is not much room inside the car. This would be a great vehicle for going around town or running errands.

2012 Ford Fiesta
The 2012 Ford Fiesta is another gas-powered car and comes with a 33 MPG rating. The annual cost for the car is about $1,554. The best feature of the Ford Fiesta is the fact that it is a sedan. This will give drivers and riders more room for road trips or getting around in a city.

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Clean Technology ExFOB

This week the U.S. military hosted 13 different vendors invited to the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California to demonstrate various new clean technologies which may hastily be developed to assist soldiers on the ground in spots like Afghanistan.

This is the third ExFOB event that the military has held. Erstwhile ExFOBs resulted in the Marine Corps acquiring new tools for reducing fuel and water demand on the battlefield. Now ExFOB 2011 has moved the focus over toward two main areas: concentrated solar harvesting technology and tactical vehicle fuel efficiency.

As outlined in a Federal Business Opportunities posting, in the solar category the military was searching for concentrated harvesting systems like lens-focused photovoltaics and solar thermal dishes powering Sterling engines, as well as concentrated passive solar water heating systems. As far as fuel efficiency, it searched for ways to improve fuel efficiency for tactical vehicles while idling or static, including bolt-on auxiliary power units and better engine or power train efficiencies, in concert with “other automotive technologies such as cold and hot weather idle free solutions for vehicle climate control, reduction of parasitic loads, or any other automotive solutions designed to improve vehicle fuel efficiency.”
CoGenera Solar was among the companies which put out word about its involvement in ExFOB 2011 saying that:

“The military is interested in Cogenra’s technology as a means to most rapidly and effectively enhance the self-sufficiency of FOBs roughly the size of a Marine Corps Company (approximately 200 Marines) by utilizing the sun to produce both power and hot water at remote locations…”

International Battery and NEST Energy Systems were two more vendors at ExFOB, which joined forces to demonstrate a system they said reduces fuel consumption in medium tactical vehicle replacement (MTVR) trucks – that use excessive idling as a means of generating electrical energy – by up to 75 percent. The companies said MTVRs are “frequently used to provide peak (2.5 kilowatts) power for ground-based systems, like, laptops, radios, blue-force trackers, etc.” For the purpose of the demonstration, the system was to be paired with a 430-watt portable solar panel in order to charge the unit.