This post will examine the energy consumption of the average American car per person per day. Quoted fuel economy and driving mileage statistics are quoted from the US department of Transportation services.
The average fuel economy for American cars is 22.4 miles/gal and 18 miles/gal in trucks/vans. For the sake of this calculation we took 20 miles/gal to be the average.
Also, Americans drive 30 miles per day on average.
Finally, energy density of gasoline is 10 kwh/liter or 37.8 kwh/gal. The calculation is performed below.
(30 miles/day)/(20 miles/gal) * 37.8 = 56.7 kwh/day
This is assuming that one person is in the car for the whole 30 miles/day. This calculation also assumes that the automobile is getting it's highway fuel economy for the entire 30 miles, which is almost never the case. The energy value is most likely to be higher in reality.
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