The uproar over Barack Obama's tire pressure energy plan was amusing and bewildering to eco-enthusiasts, but the simplicity of the solution was not lost on Chevy.  Every 2008 Chevy car, SUV and half-ton truck comes equipped with a tire pressure monitor that alerts you when your pressure is low.  That's the kind of simple engineering that helps us take a significant step towards reducing emissions.  If each new Chevy owner maintained proper tire pressure, they could improve their gas mileage by 3%!  Not lithium-ion batteries, hydrogen fuel cells or speed limiters required.

The Chevy Aveo Sedan and Aveo5 are capable (and cheap) people movers that get 34mpg, and the sporty Chevy Cobalt XFE Coupe and Sedan both clock-in at a miserly 36mpg.  Definitely not bad considering the price point these vehicles are offered at.  There is a Chevy Malibu Hybrid, but good luck getting your hands on one.  (The mileage on the Malibu Hybrid sucks anyways, better off with a Prius!)  Chevrolet does offer the butt-ugly HHR that rounds-out their 30 mpg or better club.

So that's fine if you want to drive a subcompact or you don't care about your public image (sorry HHR), but what if you're a red-blooded American who's after big wheels and horsepower?  Can you have your big-boy toy and still be fuel efficient?  You're darn-tootin'!  (That means "yes, you can".)  Chevrolet has this very cool technology built into a bunch of their larger vehicles called Active Fuel Management.  Basically, it's an intelligent system that can switch-off half your engine's cylinders when you don't need the extra power, like when you're cruising, saving fuel and wear-and-tear on your engine.

So there you have it on the fuel efficiency front: Chevy offers a number of sub compacts, some very cool technology in their big trucks and SUVs, and tire pressure sensors are standard issue.  Not bad, not bad.  Next up is Biofuels...

» Chevrolet - Fuel Efficiency