Right now, a vehicle’s mileage is a very simple calculation. Simply divide the number of miles driven by the number of gallons used over that distance to provide an answer in miles per gallon.

A company plans to bring an H3 Hummer vehicle to show off to congress that the manufacturer claims can get 100 mpg. However, AlternativeEnergy.com experts take exception to that claim and say that the actual mpg should be calculated differently, resulting in only 33 mpg.

This argument seems to me to be just another example of some people wanting to control others. They will go to extremes to make their points. In this case, the manufacturer used the simple calculation that we have used since gasoline was first poured into an internal combustion engine to propel the horseless buggy. AlternativeEnergy.com suggests that an error is introduced because the electrical energy was not accounted for in the equation. They suggest that if you take that into account that the average is 33 mpg and the public is being misled. According to AlternativeEnergy, the 100 mpg figure was derived by starting with a fully charged battery that allowed the vehicle to go 40 miles and then use the gasoline engine to go another 20 miles using 0.6 gallons (60 divided by 0.6 equals 100 mpg).

If people just use a little legwork, the picture changes dramatically. I went to the manufacturer’s website. There is a chart and an explanation on the home page. Certainly, if you start with the parameter that a person drives less than 40 miles each day, there would be no gasoline used. However, the more miles that are driven each day, the more the gasoline engine has to operate and the lower the gas mileage will be. If the H3 is driven over 200 miles each day, the mileage is expected to drop to 33 mpg. The company claims that if you drive 65 miles per day, you can expect to achieve an average of 100 mpg. Long distance drivers achieve double the straight gasoline vehicle because the gasoline engine not only propels the vehicle, it also recharges the batteries.

To me, the question should be what is the goal? In this case, the goal is to use less fuel to travel a specific distance. The company did not try to hide or mislead the public. Calculating mpg should not get unduly complicated. Why some people are determined to tell me what I must drive, how I must dress, how to walk, etc. is just beyond my understanding. To be sure, I drive a Ford Focus, but that is my decision and it should be. I live in the U.S.A. not Myanmar.