Why that fuel sipper is a pocketbook sapper

The average car on America's roads could be 30 percent more fuel efficient using today's technology. Instead of getting 27.5 miles per gallon of gasoline, it could hit 40 m.p.g.

There's just one hitch. The technology is pricey.

So instead of bolting it into today's mid-priced models, automakers are planning to install the technology on luxury cars, where profit margins are higher. Eventually, those high-tech advances will find their way into the family sedan, experts say. And some of them, such as Mike Allen, who covers cars and new technology for Popular Mechanics magazine, expect the move will happen within five years.

"The threat of higher [federal fuel efficiency] standards is no longer driving this," he says. "The marketplace is."

But automakers counter that bundling several high-tech systems into mainstream cars would push prices out of reach for many consumers.

Indeed, in a 2004 J.D. Power survey, only 19 percent of new car buyers said they would consider buying a hybrid-powered vehicle if it cost $4,000 more than a comparable traditional car - the figure the company estimates it costs automakers to add the feature. The study also cites a "rebound effect." Essentially that means "for every mile- per-gallon increase in fuel efficiency, Americans just end up driving more miles," says Walter McManus, an analyst with J.D. Power and Associates in Troy, Mich.

The technology itself is hardly exotic. In a 2001 report, the National Academy of Sciences listed several types of technologies available today that could improve fuel economy, including hybrid drivetrains, more efficient engines and transmissions, lightweight materials, and improved aerodynamics.

As automakers adopt these, they are plugging them into high-end models with large profit margins. The most promising examples come from Lexus and Honda.

In January, Lexus debuted its 400H hybrid version of the all-wheel-drive RX330 sport utility vehicle. The 400H will offer 40 more horsepower than the RX330 and a continuously variable transmission.

Honda announced it will add hybrid electric power to a premium version of its mid-size Accord sedan. Along with an electric motor and a small battery pack, the new Accord also offers cylinder cutout technology. The system saves fuel by shutting down three of the engine's six cylinders when they're not needed to accelerate. Like most hybrid systems, Honda's "integrated motor assist" shuts the gasoline engine down when the vehicle is stopped, so it doesn't waste fuel idling. The engine springs to life as soon as the driver steps on the gas. Expect the new hybrid Accord to cost $4,000 to $5,000 more than today's top-of-the-line Accord V6.

Hybrid drivetrains, cylinder cutout, and "idle-stop" features were three of the engine technologies listed in the NAS report. Two others were wider adoption of variable valve timing - used in many Japanese engines and some sports cars today - and common-rail direct fuel injection, used mainly overseas because of emissions tradeoffs.

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