If the part that you quoted above is correct, then why aren't fleet averages (in terms of fuel efficiency) going up? Why haven't these cars and trucks and SUVs, which are apparently all burning fuel more 'completely' than ever before, managed to get much better fuel efficiency than the first Model Ts from a hundred years ago? 17 mpg then, and about 17 mpg now for a lot of SUVs, as an example.

I know, cars are heavier and go faster, so there have been improvements, certainly... but they're also much more aerodynamic, or they can be if the designers choose to make them that way. There's a lot of stuff out there that could be an 'advance' which the car companies don't choose to use- hence the boxy trucks and SUVs, or the Hummer, which seem to be built to burn as much gas as they can. How can this writer make grandiose pronouncements like these when so many conventional engines come in packages like that?