FACTORS AFFECTING VEHICLE FUEL ECONOMY - Essay Example

Factors Affecting Vehicle Fuel Economy By Introduction A greater percentage of the total petroleum products in the United States is consumed by the motor industry, and this is also known to have a great impact on the natural environment, mainly through the gas emissions that pollute the environment (Gautam, 2010). The supply of non-renewable energy has been declining over the years, thus this poses a danger, as there is the risk of depleting non-renewable energy. For this reason, it has become important that governments draw a keen interest in the aspect of fuel efficiency and adopt strategies that promote fuel economy in order to prevent the overconsumption of energy.

Objectives The main objective of the research is to establish the most significant factors that affect vehicle fuel economy.Justification of the StudyThe result of this study will be valuable to the government in developing polices that apply to vehicle manufacturers and which will be effective in promoting vehicle fuel economy. Different factors that relate to vehicles have a significant impact on fuel economy. Therefore, identifying the most significant of such vehicle factors might help in future designing of vehicles to ensure that they have high gas mileage, thus promoting fuel economy.

This way, there will be a reduction in the level of fuel consumption as well as pollution from gas emissions by vehicles.Research Question The study is intended to find answers to the following question:What are the factors that affect vehicle fuel economy?Variables There are different studies have shown that there are different factors that affect fuel economy. These are categorised into three groups including vehicle factors such as cruise control, infrastructure factors such as condition of roads and road user factors such as training of driver (Haworth & Symmons, 2001).

This research will however, focus only on vehicle factors, from which the variables are drawn. These include weight, engine size, seating capacity, size of the vehicle (e.g. compact, sub-compact, SUV), vehicle model and speed.Dependent/Response Variable Vehicle fuel economy is the one and only dependent variable that this research adopts. This variable will be labelled as: VFEIndependent/Predictor Variables The independent variables in this study will be: size of vehicle, weight of vehicle, model of vehicle, speed, sitting capacity and engine size.

These will be labelled as follows:VM = Vehicle ModelWt = Weight of VehicleSz = Vehicle SizeEz = Engine SizeSc = Sitting CapacitySp = SpeedThe research will control for the variables of weather, price of fuel, driver and road condition. This is because the study is interested in vehicle factors only, thus the other variables must be kept constant, as they might affect the overall results if not controlled for. Source of Data Due to unavailability of ready data on fuel economy, the researcher will collect primary data from the field.

This will provide data on fuel economy (MPG), model of vehicle, weight of vehicle, engine of vehicle, seating capacity of vehicle, size of vehicle, speed, size of engine, road condition, fuel price, and driver training. Because of time constraints and resource limitation on the side of the researcher, the sample size will be 200. The researcher will be sure to include vehicles of different models. ReferencesGautam, S. (2010). What Factors Affect Average Fuel Economy of US Passenger Vehicles? Retrieved from Haworth, N.

& Symmons, M. (2001). The Relationship between Fuel Economy and Safety Outcomes. Retrieved from