Hyundai ranks as most fuel-efficient U.S. automaker for 2013 — but the EPA won’t say so

In an industry that fights for every last sale, claiming the title for being the most fuel-efficient automaker in the country has traditionally been a huge win. Even in times like these when gas prices have eased, shoppers
often compare mileages as much as horsepower, and when gas prices soar — as they inevitably will — having that message at the ready gets more tire-kickers into dealerships.In the United States, it's a federal report that typically determines which automaker may call itself the most fuel-efficient. Yet this year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency went out of its way to deny that accolade to the automaker with the highest average efficiency from vehicles it sold in the 2013 model year: Hyundai.
The South Korean automaker has itself partly to blame: After touting its fuel efficiency for years, the company admitted in November 2012 that it had incorrectly measured the fuel economy of 900,000 Hyundais and Kias, forcing it to write down the MPG values on 13 models. That sparked an ongoing EPA investigation into how automakers report mileages, since the EPA often checks only a fraction of the figures they estimate; the flaw that forced Ford to perform a similar reduction on the C-Max Hybrid.
Hyundai and Kia's corrected data has been accepted by the EPA and worked into its annual report on fuel economy, including its proclamation that the fuel efficiency of new U.S. cars and trucks has never been higher, averaging an estimated 24 mpg for 2013 models. But when the EPA released its breakdown of average efficiency by automakers, it didn't include Hyundai and Kia in the published table, citing the open investigation — choosing to give top marks to Mazda and Honda instead.
Here's the real list of 2013 fuel efficiency, drawn from the EPA's own data and automaker's sales estimates. This compares top-level makes that sold at least 40,000 vehicles, so for example Volkswagen includes Audi:

Automaker	Avg. MPG	City MPG	Hwy. MPG
Hyundai	28.3	23.6	33.2
Mazda	27.5	23.5	31.4
Kia	27.3	23.2	31.4
Honda	27.0	22.7	31.5
Subaru	26.2	22.7	29.7
Volkswagen	26.2	22.1	30.5
Nissan	25.3	21.6	29.0
Toyota	25.2	22.0	28.4
BMW	24.4	20.3	28.8
Industry average	24.0	20.2	28.1
Ford	22.6	18.9	26.4
Daimler	22.2	18.5	26.2
General Motors	22.0	18.0	26.5
Chrysler-Fiat	21.6	17.9	25.7

While these numbers are records, the industry still has much further to go to meet increasing standards, which in the United States would require an overall average near 39 mpg by 2025. It's the toughest engineering challenge facing automakers today, driving hybrids into supercars like the LaFerrari and the Porsche 918, and the revival of three-cylinder engines in cars like the Ford Fiesta and the Mitsubishi Mirage.
Earlier this week, General Motors announced it would retool a factory to build a 10-speed automatic transmission, leapfrogging Chrysler's 9-speed just introduced on the Jeep Cherokee. The more gears a transmission has, the more it can keep an engine running at peak efficiency — and stuffing gears into a transmission offers a lower-cost way to boost mileage than by adding an electric motor and battery.
But it's not quite fair to compare a small-car company like Mazda with a Detroit giant that sells hundreds of thousands of pickups every year; a small car has far less metal, plastic and heated/massaging leather to haul around than a luxury SUV. Thankfully, the EPA has been collecting a few more pieces of data that give a fuller picture of how well individual automakers are coping:

Automaker	Avg. MPG	Avg. weight (lbs.)	Engine Size (liters)	Horsepower	0-60 mph	Ton-MPG
Hyundai	28.3	3,371	2.19	194	9.2	N/A
Mazda	27.5	3,326	2.26	167	10.2	59.2
Kia	27.3	3,381	2.22	183	9.5	N/A
Honda	27.0	3,654	2.56	196	9.6	63.4
Subaru	26.2	3,646	2.45	177	10.4	62.0
VW	26.2	3,765	2.34	201	9.4	61.8
Nissan	25.3	3,790	2.87	212	9.6	63.3
Toyota	25.2	3,937	2.89	205	9.5	68.9
BMW	24.4	4,041	2.54	275	8.2	62.8
Industry average	24.0	4,041	2.94	230	9.3	62.8
Ford	22.6	4,460	3.06	262	9.0	64.6
Daimler	22.2	4,447	3.41	296	8.1	62.2
GM	22.0	4,437	3.51	253	9.4	61.2
Chrysler-Fiat	21.6	4,235	3.40	259	8.9	57.6

Take Mazda as an example: It's relied on squeezing the most it can from gasoline engines and cutting weight to increase efficiency, giving it the lightest yet slowest vehicles among new 2013 models. Hyundai and many others have shrunk their engines while maintaining or boosting power through turbocharging or other technology; luxury makes like BMW and Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler suffer because of their relatively hefty models and high-power engines.
Yet it's that last column that's most revealing. It's the EPA's calculation of test MPGs times average weight in tons — an attempt to measure how efficient an automaker's vehicles are controlling for weight. This helps the Detroit makes; although Chrysler lags, GM improves to mid-pack and Ford stands as the second-most fuel-saving carbuilder, thanks to its Ecoboost engines. But Toyota runs away in this measure, mainly due to 30 percent of its 2013 sales coming from hybrid models, from the Prius to the Highlander. Expect more automakers to follow this route as 2025 draws nearer.

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Bitcoin May Be in a 'Bubble' but It Can Also Buy You a Tesla Model S

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What can you buy with bitcoins? Wine-flavored lollipops? Custom leather watch bands? Or how about ... a Tesla (TSLA) Model S?
A Lamborghini dealership in Costa Mesa, California, says it just sold a Tesla Motors Model S for bitcoins
and will accept the virtual currency for any future car purchases.
Bitcoin, a fully encrypted and fully digital currency, has been used by a recent client of ours to pay for a Tesla Model S Performance we had in our inventory," the Lamborghini Newport Beach dealership posted on its website. “That's right, an electronic currency was used to purchased a fully electric vehicle.The dealership didn’t identify the buyer or price tag on the electric car, likely left over from a trade in by an earlier Lambo buyer. A new Tesla Model S starts at $62,400. With bitcoins trading at $1,052 on the Mt.Gox Exchange Thursday, it would take about 59 bitcoins to grab a new electronic ride.
The currency's rise from a few cents each back in 2010 to over $1,000 has fueled more large purchases than just this one. For example, back in October, we saw headlines on a 27-year-old Norwegian man who bought a flat in Oslo with bitcoin profits generated from an initial investment of less than $30. But in that case, he had to actually exchange the coins to kroner. It's notable that the Newport Beach dealership accepted the bitcoins on their own merit.There have been few other big-item vendors that have done this, although Virgin Galactic did announce it would accept bitcoin for its space flights going forward, and a Hawaiian flight attendant was reportedly the first to bite.The value of a bitcoin has fluctuated wildly this year, rising from $20 at the beginning of the year to $140 in October to more than $1,200 at the beginning of December. News this week that Chinese authorities would not allow the country’s banks to deal in bitcoin sent the currency price tumbling back down to $1,000. Former Fed chief Alan Greenspan also said the cryptocurrency is in a bubble  an idea that has been debated as bitcoin's value has inflated.But car dealers and other commercial vendors can ignore the price swings because bitcoins can be so easily and quickly converted back into dollars.

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