This site may become a useful guide to everyone who feels difficulty choosing the most fuel economical cars for everyday driving. We created a car catalog with the vehicles whose fuel consumption is less than 30 MPG with the detailed description for each. An advanced search and models sorting were provided in order to help you to choose your car the fastest way. The site constantly publishes news of current interest about the most economical cars, as well as test drives of different new and old models. We try to follow the world trends and inform our readers about them. The site directory contains more than 200 cars with minimal fuel consumption. In the catalog we collected not only the diesel engines that are renowned for their efficiency. One can also find here a lot of gasoline and hybrid engines. It is worth to note that there are not only small but also large sedans among the most fuel economical cars presented.

It goes without saying that trends in reducing of fuel consumption and emissions are the most relevant problem in modern society. Industrial production and power engineering, automobile transport and aviation, chemicals in agriculture and many other human activities lead to changes in the external environment and are sources of air, soil, waters and seas pollution. The main pollutants in the air basin are carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, sulfur and nitrogen oxides and particulates. And the role of automobile transport as the main source of air pollution is increasing. On average, one large-sized car emits 3 tons of harmful substances a year, the share of automobile transport pollution in some cities is 30-40%, and in large ones is up to 60%. The situation is even worse in major cities around the world.

The amount of hazardous substances allocated to the environment depends on the size and structure of a car, its technical condition, the type of engine and fuel and the terms of vehicle operation.

That is the main (except high oil prices) cause why all the world's leading automakers are thinking about the most fuel economical cars and chasing for lower fuel consumption and reduction of harmful emissions into the atmosphere. Very often they choose the same way (almost the simplest and the cheapest one) to manage it: they reduce the volume of manufactured engines and change their type. Kia, Volkswagen, Fiat, Audi, Volvo has already demonstrated the engines of the new generation cars – cars economical. Now, other famous vehicle producers show the similar tendency.

More or less promising realization of an idea about the most economical cars one can call the hybrid automobile which uses diverse energy in transmission of drive wheels.

Modern car manufacturers use the scheme which allows to combine the traction of internal combustion engine and electric motor. This avoids the work of ICE in the regime of small loads, as well as implements recovery of kinetic energy. All the above features increase the fuel efficiency of the power plant.

So, the main reason for the hybrid cars economical producing was a market demand for such vehicles caused by high oil prices and the constant increase of requirements for cars environmental performance. At the same time improving the technology and tax incentives for hybrid manufacturers make these cars in some cases even cheaper than usual. In some countries, hybrids owners are exempt from road tax and do not pay for municipal parking.

And the use of other variant of the most economical cars – electric vehicles (despite many advantages and even their adjusted production) has several minuses:
- too long battery charging period;
- large batteries mass;
- lack of distance run;
- petrol stations unavailability.

Now then the most economical cars developers had to look for compromise and eliminate the defects. And the hybrid car has become such a compromise.

Toyota leads in the number of hybrids and actively produces these cars since 1997, modifying their Prius conventional cars, Lexus RX400h SUVs, as well as luxury Lexus LS 600h.

In 2006, there were sold more than half a million Prius models. Toyota HSD hybrid drive technology for the most fuel economical cars was licensed by Ford (Escape Hybrid), Nissan (Altima Hybrid).

Though mass production of hybrid vehicles is constrained by the deficit of nickel-metal hydride batteries.

In spite is this, hybrid popularity is growing every day. For example, in 2009, Japan sold 90,410 hybrid vehicles, which is 47.6% more than in 2008. In 2009, hybrid vehicles sales increased in the U.S. by 38% compared with 2008. In this country hybrid cars take 2.15% of new cars market. That year the U.S. sold about 350,000 hybrid vehicles (excluding corporation GM sales). Totally the United States sold 1.002 million hybrid cars from 2002 till the end of 2010.

Another important point one choosing the most economical cars should know is the difference between diesel and gasoline engine. In this case there are some significant nuances to be taken into consideration.

First of all diesel engines are the attributes of cars economical. Its average consumption per 100 km is much lower than the gasoline engine of the same size. However, the price of the car with a diesel engine is higher than the gasoline one.

Some simple arithmetic will help you understand why. Let’s compare two cars – BMW 1 Series and Ford Focus, both represented by two modifications of petrol and diesel engines (the same in volume). Any standard automobile web reviewer will show the cost of ownership for the year (calculated by mileage of 15,000 miles per year by default). According to Quto.ru you can save maximum 10,000 rubles, since the maintenance service for diesel modifications is more expensive than for the gasoline ones.

However, if you count the mileage of 100,000 km, the difference will be more than palpable. Is this case you can feel the financial difference between diesel and gasoline engines. From an economic point of view the first one can be justified only when constant exploited and when you going to travel on the same car more than 100,000 kilometers.

You should take into account the fact that the quality of diesel fuel in many countries (especially in Eastern Europe) leaves much to be desired, and in order to extend the life of the engine one should refuel his car at network gas stations.

Then why does the whole Europe prefer diesel engines to produce cars economical? Point is that diesel fuel was much cheaper than gasoline once, and the European Union strongly supported the purchase of diesel variants, providing subsidies through the budget and loyal consumer credit programs. Now it's just a matter of habit, and fuel prices are almost equal.

An increasing amount of the most fuel economical cars are now equipped with high-efficient gasoline engine of a small volume with turbine of turbocharger with direct fuel injection that allows you to meet high environmental standards of Euro-6 and remain cost effective. More over, it’s harder and harder to meet increasing C02 emissions standards for diesel engines. According to the forecasts of many experts, diesel engines will no longer be able to comply with Euro-8 if there is no technological breakthrough in this sphere. In addition we should note that it can be difficult to drive diesel cars in countries with cold climates, because they may not be started in cold weather.

What are the obvious advantages of diesel engine? You can travel a good distance on a tank without refueling. Diesel engines have high torque, and that is why in Europe diesel is a synonymous for a sports version of a car. Of course, we don’t speak about supercars, but about day-to-day automobiles. One shouldn’t forget that Peugeot diesel and Audi take the first places at 24 Hours of Le Mans racing last few years.

As you see the world of cars economical is rather complex and ambiguous. The main purpose of our site is to help you understand it and make the right choice.