[VilleO]

Quick googling gave me average US car consumption 25 mpg vs 57 mpg in EU.

Edit: Bad googling, sorry. 57 mpg was proposed for new cars.

[dkdbejwi383]

Hmm, I wasn't even thinking about fuel efficiency, but that's interesting.

I meant, for anyone that missed it, that commuting by bus/train/tram/metro is much more common in urban areas in Europe than in the USA.

[phinnaeus]

Compound that with driving more and it's a lot more time spent filling up.

[rutthenut]

Wow! Average 57 mpg in Europe - really? Even for diesels, that sounds extremely optimistic; is that from manufacturer-supplied figures?

US gallons happen to be smaller too, fwiw

[iarenaza]

Well, my 7 years old Mercedes A 180 CDI 2012 model (Diesel engine) averages 53 mpg (4.4 l/100Km) still today (see my old comment with all the details for the these numbers at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14552816). The manufacturer-supplied official numbers are even better (3.3 to 3.6 l/100Km, or about 65 to 71 mpg).

NB: the above mpg numbers are computed using US gallons (3.785 litres)

[rutthenut]

Useful economy figures, for sure. It's the average across Europe that I'd find really surprising, given how many older vehicles there will be, and not all diesels