Pictures: Cars That Fired Our Love-Hate Relationship With Fuel

1876 Otto Four-Stroke Engine

Illustration by Mark Sykes, Vintage Power and Transport/Alamy

The sparks inside this piece of machinery ignited the gasoline transportation age. It is the first practical gas-powered four-stroke engine, built by German traveling salesman-turned-inventor Nikolaus Otto in 1876. The Otto cycle internal combustion engine powers the vast majority of cars in the world to this day.

Otto's design marked a revolution in efficiency, compared to the earlier two-cycle engine invented by Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir, which featured a single cylinder and a storage battery (for electric ignition), and ran on coal gas. (The progeny of the two-stroke engine, noisy and inefficient, can be found in chainsaws, outboard motors, and motorcycles today.)

With four piston strokes corresponding to intake, compression, combustion, and exhaust, the Otto cycle engine ran more economically, quietly, and reliably than any design the world had yet seen.  But there are inherent inefficiencies in the spark-ignition internal combustion engine that still bedevil the world of transportation. Much of the fuel energy is lost as exhaust heat, and in modern vehicles, only 14 percent to 26 percent of the energy from gasoline put into the tank actually is used to propel the car down the road.

(Related: "Supercomputing Power Could Pave the Way to Energy-Efficient Engines")

Published May 24, 2012

1886 Benz Three-Wheeler

Photograph courtesy Library of Congress

The internal combustion engine automobile first hit the road in German mechanical engineer Karl Benz's three-wheeled 1886 Patent-Motorwagen. The vehicle was the first designed from the ground up to house a gas engine.

Like modern-day vehicles, the Patent-Motorwagen single-cylinder engine was based on Nikolaus Otto's four-stroke cycle: intake, compression, ignition, exhaust. It also had an electric ignition, water cooling, and a crankshaft with counterweights. Although Benz's model was "very tippy," the overall design was "ingenious," Kendall said. "He was doing it from scratch."

The Motorwagen weighed only 265 kilograms (just under 585 pounds) and consumed about 10 liters of petrol per 100 kilometers, about 24 mpg (10.2 km/l)—not that different from many cars today. Still, according to historical records from German automaker Daimler, one of Benz's sons ran alongside the Motorwagen carrying a bottle of fuel during its first public trial, "in order to fill up the tank should the gasoline run out."

(Related: A Fuel-Saving Car Engine in the Blink of an IRIS)

Published May 24, 2012

1880s Daimler’s Four-Wheeled Carriage

Photograph from Bettmann/Corbis

At the same time that Karl Benz was developing his three-wheeler in Mannheim, Germany, in the 1880s, Gottlieb Daimler was creating the world's first four-wheeled automobile with an internal combustion engine in Stuttgart, 120 kilometers (75 miles) away.

"Neither one was aware of the other, supposedly," Kendall said. Daimler received his patent for a "vehicle with gas or petroleum drive machine" in 1885. Benz built three gas engine models between 1885 and 1887, and received the patent for his design in 1886.

Daimler's design was literally a motorized carriage. In 1886 he integrated a high-speed, four-stroke, 1.1-horsepower gas engine into a stagecoach purchased for 775 Marks from the Stuttgart firm W. Wimpff & Sohn.

Daimler's car ran on petrol, but gasoline was by no means the assured fuel of choice for personal transportation over the next few decades. By the turn of the century in the United States, cars powered by steam, gasoline, and electricity were all proliferating on the roadways. Early electric cars had many advantages over steam engines, which required long start-up times, and gas cars, which at the time required hand-cranking and difficult gear-shifting.

Published May 24, 2012

1910 Electric Car

Photograph courtesy Thomas Edison NHP, NPS/DOI

To inventor Thomas Edison in the early 1900s, electric cars looked like the future of transportation.

Although better known for inventions such as the light bulb and motion pictures, Edison also designed three electric cars using his nickel-iron Edison Storage Batteries. Here he is seen standing beside a model that left New York on a 1,000-mile promotional "ideal tour" in September 1910, charging along the way and ending with an ascent up New Hampshire's Mount Washington.

By the time Edison's battery (a longer-lasting, lighter-weight improvement over previous lead-acid batteries) was ready for this journey, electric cars had already been on the road for more than 15 years. In 1899 and 1900, more electric cars were sold in the United States than any other type of vehicle. In 1903, London boasted more electric cars than vehicles with internal combustion engines.

The first EV heyday was brief, however, and Edison's battery came along as Ford's more affordable Model T was gaining prominence. Even so, Edison and Henry Ford himself planned to develop a low-cost electric car as late as 1914. In January of that year, Ford told reporters in New York, "The problem so far has been to build a storage battery of light weight which would operate for long distances without recharging." The pair envisioned a 1,100-pound car containing 405 pounds of battery equipment, priced at $600, Ford said. "How does that compare with the great, heavy, and expensive electric cars?"

The basic design of an electric vehicle propulsion system, with its rechargeable battery pack powering an electric motor, offers efficiency advantages over the internal combustion engine. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, electric motors can convert 75 percent of chemical energy from the batteries to power forward motion (some energy is lost as heat), while internal combustion engines put only 20 percent of the energy in gasoline toward moving the vehicle. Tesla Motors, maker of the electric Tesla Roadster and upcoming Model S electric sedan, claims its Roadster has 88 percent drive efficiency.

The Ford-Edison project ultimately fell through, partly due to battery troubles. And according to a history of the electric car published by the Institution of Electrical Engineers and the Society of Automotive Engineers, the final new American electric car built during Edison's era was a 1921 model, the Automatic, capable of traveling 25 miles per hour and 60 miles on a charge. The Automatic sold for $1,200—more than four times the price of a Model T at that time.

Published May 24, 2012

1908 Ford Model T

Photograph from Bettmann/Corbis

Henry Ford introduced his Model T in 1908. "It was so much more car for the money than had ever been available in the past," said Kendall. "It laid waste to any other car that pretended to be a compact."

The car weighed 1,200 pounds and got an estimated 13 to 21 mpg (5.5 to 9 km/l). "It was a very rugged car, very simple mechanically, really easy to fix yourself," Kendall said. "You can see how it was right for the times."

The Model T was the first car for many families. "This is what they went to after the horse," Kendell said. "A lot of people, when they were taught how to drive, when they put their foot on the brake they would say 'whoa,' talking to the car like they would talk to a horse."

In the United States, thanks to the surge in fuel from the Texas gushers after the 1901 oil strike at Spindletop, gas sold for only 20 cents per gallon during the Model T era. However, "That was a bucket of money for people," Kendall said. Workers in the Ford assembly plants earned $5 a day. So while fuel economy still wasn't much of a consideration at this point, driving was not the default mode of transport. "In the beginning, you saved it till you really needed it," Kendall said. "It was kind of a new thing you used on special occasions or for business-doctors especially. They needed to get around reliably."

(Related Quiz: "What You Don't Know About Gas Prices")

Ford's mass assembly helped give the internal combustion engine a decisive advantage over electric vehicles. In 1912, an electric roadster sold for $1,750, while a gasoline car sold for $650, according to a history compiled by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Published May 24, 2012

1930s Mercedes-Benz 260D

Photograph courtesy Daimler

A more efficient engine option for motorists hit the road in 1936, when Mercedes Benz introduced the 260D, the first series-production diesel passenger car. It featured the engine invented in 1893 by Rudolf Diesel, which relied on compression rather than an electric spark to ignite the fuel.

Diesel engines have inherently lower losses and are generally one-third more efficient than their gasoline counterparts. Citroen rolled out a diesel passenger car prototype—a Rosalie model outfitted with a diesel engine—to 100 private drivers in 1935.

In February 1936, Mercedes introduced its diesel passenger car at the International Motorcycle and Automobile Exhibition in Berlin. According to Daimler, the model (pictured) consumed slightly more than 9 liters of diesel per 100 kilometers (about 26 mpg or 11 km/l). Meanwhile, a similar gas model consumed about 13 liters per 100 kilometers (approximately 18 mpg or 7.7 km/l).

Today, around the world, heavy-duty vehicles such as trucks and buses rely primarily on diesel engines. In Europe, where fuel-tax schemes encourage their use, about half the passenger vehicle fleet is now diesel-powered.

(Related Story: "As Fuel Efficiency Evolves, So Do Fuel Taxes")

In the United States, however, diesel engines have only a 2.4 percent market share, according to analysts at LMC Automotive. However, since air pollution regulations have reduced sulfur and other noxious pollutants long associated with diesel fuel, the engines are expected to become more popular in the United States as a fuel-saving option in the coming years.

Published May 24, 2012

1957 Chevrolet Bel Air

Photograph from Lambert/Getty Images

"The U.S. car is threatening to become a compulsive drinker," Popular Science proclaimed in 1958, as chrome, tail fins, thirsty engines, and big, bulky cars became king of the American road.

Chevrolet's 1957 Bel Air, shown here, featured new luxury options like air-conditioning, which added weight, as well as mechanical fuel injection, which enabled the same power output with less fuel compared to carbureted engines. Chevy's compact and relatively efficient small-block V8 engine, nicknamed the "Mighty Mouse," powered the car.

Born in an era when efficiency took a back seat to power, the engine was described in a recent statement from GM as "the engine that brought high-performance to the people."

"After World War II, the United States was sitting on top," Kendall said. "It seemed that most major American manufacturers were only interested in making very large cars." They built "gigantic cars, gobbling up enormous stretches of highway. It was like driving on a mattress—very comfortable."

Published May 24, 2012

1960 AMC Rambler

Photograph from RDA/Getty Images

American Motors President George W. Romney poses in 1960 with the Rambler, the "compact" car with which he led the charge against the Detroit establishment and fuel waste. "Who wants to have a gas-guzzling dinosaur in his garage?" he asked in a 1959 interview with Time magazine.

Although the Rambler was larger than a full-sized Mercedes at that time, it was small by American standards. The Rambler handily beat its U.S. competitors in the annual Mobilgas Economy Run, a cross-country fuel efficiency race that remains the best record of mileage in that era; in 1959, the Rambler achieved 25.3 mpg (10.8 km/l). In another competition, the Pure Oil Economy Trials, a custom Rambler sedan in 1960 recorded 51.28 mpg (21.8 km/l).

The Rambler struck a chord with a public looking for fuel economy by the time of the 1958 recession. It was a turning away from the behemoths that had dominated the roads for the past decade.

The popularity of the Rambler was the first indication that the age of the showy tail fin and V-8 guzzler would not last.

Published May 24, 2012

1973 Datsun 240Z

Photograph by Jeff Ludes, Transtock/Corbis

The popular Datsun 240z sports car, shown here, helped make Japanese automaker Nissan a major player in the U.S. market during the 1970s—a decade when the 1973 Arab oil embargo shocked the world into paying attention to fuel economy.

At 20.2 mpg (8.6 km./l), the 240Z combined efficiency with styling and power that helped it gain it wide appeal. Although the 240Z was still a rear-wheel drive vehicle, Nissan also helped to spur a switch to front-wheel drive, a move that Detroit had long resisted. Through most of the history of auto manufacturing, the engine in front powered the wheels in back—requiring a heavier and more cumbersome assembly, and a large hump bisecting the car floor. But with all drivetrain components under the hood, cars could be smaller, lighter, and roomier. And they had better traction—and fuel economy.

Fuel economy became significant when the United States enacted Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards in 1975. At the time, the average foreign-designed vehicle achieved 50 percent better fuel economy than the average car off U.S. assembly lines, according to a 2002 report from the National Academies. Nearly half of the European imports in 1975 used front-wheel drive, compared to only 1.3 percent of U.S. passenger cars. U.S. manufacturers also trailed their overseas competitors in use of fuel injection.

"Undoubtedly, higher fuel prices in Europe and Asia were (and still are) a major incentive for rapid implementation of fuel economy technologies," the National Academies wrote. "However, the emphasis on small cars in 1975 by foreign manufacturers was clearly the most important reason for their higher fuel economy."

But the U.S. market responded to the energy crisis and new efficiency measures. Over the next decade, the average fuel economy of passenger vehicles in the U.S. would more than double—to 27.5 miles per gallon.

Published May 24, 2012

1999 Honda Insight

Photograph from AP

Honda raised the bar on fuel efficiency with the launch of its first hybrid gas-electric model, the Insight. After debuting in Japan in 1997, the Honda Insight became the first hybrid sold in the United States two years later.

In its first model year, the manual five-speed Insight earned a combined rating of 53 miles per gallon (49 mpg city, 61 mpg highway) from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The roots of gas-electric technology extend as far back as 1900, when a Viennese coach builder named Jacob Lohner and a young Ferdinand Porsche demonstrated their Elektromobil at the Paris Exposition. The car had electric motors in the front wheel hubs, Kendall noted, and a gas engine that drove a generator, which charged the batteries.

The rebirth of the hybrid came as California regulators were trying to reduce vehicle emissions and address the state's air-quality problems by enacting mandates and incentives for cleaner cars.

In 1990, the California Air Resources Board created the Zero Emission Vehicle Program, mandating that 2 percent of the vehicles sold by each large automaker in the state would have to be zero-emission within eight years. Given the technology available at the time, that meant battery-electric cars. By 2003, under pressure from the auto industry, ARB had modified the rule so automakers could meet some of their ZEV requirements with hybrids.

Published May 24, 2012

2000 Toyota Prius

Photograph by Noah Addis, Star Ledger/Corbis

Toyota debuted its gas-electric Prius in Japan in 1997, the year of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that produced the Kyoto Protocol, and in the United States in 2000. Using regenerative braking to charge its nickel-metal hydride battery pack during stop-and-go traffic, the car received a 41 mpg (17.4 km/l) rating.

A decade earlier, General Motors had achieved similar mileage with its bare-bones Geo Metro XF1 (43 mpg city, 52 mpg highway), in part by eliminating passenger-side mirrors and air-conditioning. With the Prius, Toyota offered a very different vision of fuel efficiency. Far from an economy vehicle, the car sold at a premium and became a symbol for affluent green values and next-generation automotive technology.

"Cars are a compromise," Kendall said. "They need to slice through the air as cleanly as possible while you carry people or maybe a load of lumber in the back. If all you had to do was get one person from one point to the other, it would be a piece of cake. There's an ideal shape for a car, but then you've got to put doors on it, wheels on it."

Published May 24, 2012

1992 Hummer H1

Photograph by Dani Winston, Transtock/Corbis

Relatively low gas prices, and loopholes that allowed gargantuan vehicles like the Hummer H1 to skirt stalled fuel economy standards paved the way for guzzler-mania in the 1990s.

The decade saw generally declining fuel economy in the United States, based on fleet-wide averages. SUVs, minivans, pickup trucks took up a growing portion of vehicles on the road. "All of a sudden gas was cheap again, so who cared? Everyone got into the 'mine's bigger than yours' race," Kendall said.

The Hummer H1 capped off the era. This type of vehicle was exempt from publishing fuel economy ratings, but it reportedly got a dismal 10 mpg (4.3 km/l)—worse than the Model T.

The standard for light trucks, set at 20 miles per gallon in 1986, did not exceed 20.5 miles per gallon until 1995. It was not until 2005 that the standard rose beyond 20.7 miles per gallon. And CAFE standards simply did not apply to vehicles weighing 8,500 pounds or more, such as the colossal Hummer and Ford Excursion.

Published May 24, 2012

2009 Tata Nano

Photograph by Valentin Flauraud, Reuters

Ford's Model T helped bring car ownership within reach for a generation in the United States. Now automakers are racing to offer a 21st century affordable car, like this $2,400 Tata Nano, for billions of first-time car buyers in the developing world.

(Related: "Driving the Limit: Wealthy Nations Maxed Out on Travel?")

By 2050, the number of vehicles on the road is expected to more than triple, with 80 percent of that growth occurring in the developing world. That trajectory means the fuel economy of vehicles in growing markets like India and China will have a big effect on global fuel efficiency. Indian automaker Tata Motors hopes to deliver a basic 56-mpg ( 23.8 km/l) car to the world's masses, first in India, and later in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa.

(Related Story: "China's Electric Car Drive: Impressive, but Not Enough")

Dubbed the Tata Nano and promoted as the "people's car," the model sputtered out of the gate. However, monthly sales have more than doubled since October 2011 to more than 10,000 units in March, and many of those cars are being sold to first-time buyers. The company plans to launch a 94-mpg (39.9 km/l) diesel version in 2012.

Published May 24, 2012

2012 Fisker Karma

Photograph from Splash News/Corbis

Small economy cars once ruled the efficiency roost. These days, some of the most advanced green technology can be found in high-end luxury vehicles, although as models like the plug-in hybrid Fisker Karma show, factors like driver behavior and vehicle weight still matter.

(Related Photos: "Electric Cars Zip into View")

Plug-in hybrid models, which can have a gas engine kick in when their batteries run low on charge, are part of a new generation of vehicles capable of triple-digit miles per gallon. But plug-in technology alone is not enough to deliver sky-high efficiency.

While the U.S. EPA rated General Motors' Chevy Volt at 93 miles per gallon-equivalent, or MPGe (39.5 km/l) in battery mode, it gave the luxury plug-in sports car shown here, the Fisker Karma, just 52 MPGe (22.1 km/l). In range-extender mode, the Karma earned a rating of just 20 mpg (8.5 km/l).

The latest generation of more efficient vehicles comes at a time when fuel economy standards are undergoing an overhaul around the world. In a report released in May 2011 by the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, researchers noted that nine countries and regions had established their own motor vehicle fuel economy or greenhouse gas emission standards. Brazil, India, Mexico, and South Africa were expected to begin similar measures in the near future, in addition to the major changes already announced in the United States, Japan, China, and the European Union.

Published May 24, 2012

2012 Mitsubishi i

Photograph courtesy Mitsubishi Motors

Technically, all-electric cars don't use a single drop of gasoline. Of course, they do require energy, so regulators have devised a methodology to calculate the efficiency of battery-powered cars in terms equivalent to their diesel and gas counterparts.

For 2012, the Mitsubishi i (previously called the i-MiEV) takes the crown for the highest MPGe rating from the U.S. EPA for an electric vehicle: 112 MPGe (equivalent to 47.6 km/l). The Ford Focus BEV and Nissan Leaf are close behind, achieving 105 MPGe (44.6 km/l)  and 99 MPGe (42.1 km/l) ratings, respectively, for combined city and highway driving.

The ratings reflect the fact that electric motors are inherently more efficient than engines. Without the exhaust and heat losses, they convert 75 percent of the chemical energy from the batteries to power the wheels.

The stumbling block has been to improve batteries so that they store more of that energy.  Still, energy storage technology has come a long way since the days of Thomas Edison's Bailey Electric. Today's electric models use lithium-ion battery packs capable of powering a car for up to 300 miles under optimal conditions—a distance much greater than necessary for most daily commuter trips, especially for city drivers. Even so, Kendall said, "You can't go five, six hundred miles on a charge. The minute you can do that, internal combustion is dead."

(Related: "Electric Car Range Anxiety: Fact or Fiction?")

Published May 24, 2012

2013 Hiriko Self-Folding EV

Photograph by Olivier Hoslet, European Pressphoto Agency

The Hiriko project's folding electric vehicle reimagines the personal automobile as one piece of a larger urban mobility puzzle. Slated for trial production next year in Spain's Basque region, the car has a wheelbase that collapses enough when parked for three vehicles to fit in a single parking spot.

(Related: "To Curb Driving, Cities Cut Down on Parking")

In the early days of the automobile, Kendall said, "Americans were used to being independent, riding our horses from one town to another, and later driving our cars from one town to another." But what would a car look like if it was designed for an increasingly urban and connected population?

(Related: "Pictures: Twelve Car-Free City Zones" and "The City Solution")

The researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab who originally developed the Hiriko concept sought to "base the underlying design principles on electric drive and wireless communications rather than the internal combustion engine and stand-alone operation." The idea is to create a network of services providing mobility on demand, from shared scooters and improved public transit to pods of city cars available as needed.

Its MIT designers have said the car will get the equivalent of 200 mpg (85 km/l).

(Related "Pictures: Cool Cars Designed by Students To Sip Fuel" and "French Teams From the Loire Valley Grab Top Efficiency Prizes")

Published May 24, 2012

Next: What You Don't Know About Cars and Fuel Quiz

Photograph from Alaska Stock/National Geographic

Published May 24, 2012