I rented an Economy car when I was in Ireland. They gave me a Kia Rio sedan. It’s actually a bit larger than many other cars I saw on the roads. By my casual observation, the most popular cars in Ireland are (in no particular order) Opel Corsa, Peugeot 207, and Nissan Micra. According to Wikipedia, they all belong to a category called "supermini," basically subcompact here in the U.S. The comparable cars in the U.S. would be a Honda Fit or a Toyota Yaris. After coming back to the U.S. and driving my much larger Honda Accord, I don’t know why cars in the U.S. have to be that big. Those smaller cars do the job just fine.
The cheap gas price in the U.S. certainly has something to do with it. Unleaded gas in Ireland (called "petrol") was 1.12 Euros a liter. That’s about $6 a gallon in Ireland, versus $2.50 a gallon in the U.S. I don’t know if they sell hybrid cars in Ireland. I did not see a single Prius when I was there. Perhaps hybrids are the future, but we can go a long way toward reducing fossil fuel consumption if only small cars are more popular in the U.S. Making gas more expensive is certainly one way to induce that.
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TIE says
Based on EconTalk interviews there seems to be some evidence that efficient internal combusion engines use fewer resources than hybrids if you count all resource use: from construction to responsible disposal (batteries need to be handled carefully). I don’t have references handy.
Anyway, as the owner of a large vehicle I can tell you exactly why I have one and why I like it. The main reason is that it doesn’t cost me much. I’m imposing externalities on others that cost me nothing. Gas prices are low. We also don’t drive much so even if they were back up to $4 it wouldn’t matter.
Givent that it is cheap, we selected a large vehicle because it fits our family and lifestyle well. The kids and my wife’s supplies for her business all fit in the car without a problem. This could not be said of our previous smaller vehicle. (Child car seat requirements really impose an incentive for larger cars.)
But it comes back to price. Of course we’d make do with a smaller car if the price difference justified it. I’m personally happy it does not. But I also think it should. (I actually think we should have far fewer vehicles overall and much better public transportation…)
SJ says
Aren’t we fatter =)?
Basically energy is way too cheap in this country… I think calories are also too cheap too… tho not entirely certain…
right side of the river says
did you notice any cars running on CNG (compressed natural gas)? some cars have a CNG sticker at the back, or you might have seen CNG pumps at the gas station. it’s a lot cheaper than gas/petrol so a lot of countries have been retooling their cars to run on it. don’t know if Ireland is one of them.
Harry Sit says
@right side of the river – No I didn’t notice any sticker. I didn’t see any CNG pumps either. Their petrol has only one grade. There are two nozzles at the pump: unleaded petrol or diesel. Diesel was about 10% less than unleaded petrol. No card swipes at the pumps. You pump first. Then go into the store to pay. At one station it said “use self-service after 7 p.m.” with a slot on a metal pole. I wonder if that’s for paying cash on an honor system.
TimK says
There’s a “how taxes drives behavior” (pun intended) angle to this story. I recalled from prior business trips to Ireland that cars with an engine over 1 liter (1000cc) had a significantly higher Motor Tax. Looks like they changed the tax regime from engine size to CO2 emissions. A quick glance at the chart shows how progressive the rate is. http://www.irishlinks.co.uk/car-tax-ireland.htm
you saw a lot of small cars in part because of the taxes on big cars. Imagine what the reaction would be if we tried that here…