Technical Paper
Some Evidence on Determinants of Fuel Economy as a Function of Driving Cycle and Test Type
1993-08-01
931804
Statistical methods are used with 107 vehicles whose fuel economy was presented and reported for five test types in a single publication by Consumers Union (CU) for 1986-1988 vehicles. Standard loglinear statistical formulations (i.e., multiplicative models of interactions) are used with data from this and supplementary sources to develop coefficients estimating the percent fuel economy gain per percent change in engine/vehicle design characteristic. The coefficients are developed for the five different test conditions evaluated by CU and are compared with each other on the basis of attributes of the tests. The insights of engineering models are used to develop expectations regarding the shift in size of coefficients as driving cycles change.
