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My Toyota Sequoia has close to twice the horsepower than my Cessna 182 did, but the Cessna burnt easily twice as much fuel per mile than the Toyota. The Cessna
by repiret 4y ago
My Toyota Sequoia has close to twice the horsepower than my Cessna 182 did, but the Cessna burnt easily twice as much fuel per mile than the Toyota.
The Cessna cruised at 65% power. The Toyota cruises at closer to 10% power, but needs the excess power available when a hill comes along.
I suspect a similar dynamic exists with trains and ships - trains need to have power available to go up a hill, while ships probably cruise at closer to full power.
- rektide 4y agoThanks. To dogpile on what a bad measure that was, I'd add another example: A Tesla Plaid S is 1020HP. Is it less efficient because the engine is oversized? Seemingly the opposite. It's 33kWh/mi compared to the nearby Performance S (with similar 21 inch wheelsizes). If we assessed miles*capacity/hp though, things would look incredibly dire & dark for the Plaid; the worst EV in production perhaps? In general, engine output capacity doesnt really tell us much.