In a move to provide additional sales for U.S. car manufacturers, the White House announced the purchase of 17,600 new fuel-efficient vehicles for the federal fleet. Suppose the new fleet, which includes 2,500 hybrid sedans, will cost $295 million. As an accountant in the White House Budget Office (WHBO), you have been asked to calculate the following:
(a)
If each hybrid vehicle will have an average cost of $27,000, what will be the average cost per non-hybrid vehicle? Round to the nearest whole dollar.
$
(b)
Suppose furthermore, the White House said that by replacing less efficient vehicles, the government will reduce gasoline consumption by 1.7 million gallons per year and prevent 27 million pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. On average, how many gallons of gasoline and how many pounds of carbon dioxide will be "saved" per year per vehicle? Round to the nearest whole gallon and whole pound.
gasoline saved
gal
carbon dioxide saved
lb
To calculate the average cost per non-hybrid vehicle, we first need to determine the total cost of the hybrid vehicles by multiplying the number of hybrid sedans (2,500) by the average cost per hybrid vehicle ($27,000).
Total cost of hybrid vehicles = 2,500 * $27,000 = $67,500,000
Next, we subtract the cost of the hybrid vehicles from the total cost of the fleet to find the cost of the non-hybrid vehicles.
Cost of non-hybrid vehicles = Total cost of fleet - Total cost of hybrid vehicles
= $295,000,000 - $67,500,000
= $227,500,000
Finally, we divide the cost of the non-hybrid vehicles by the number of non-hybrid vehicles to find the average cost per non-hybrid vehicle.
Average cost per non-hybrid vehicle = Cost of non-hybrid vehicles / Number of non-hybrid vehicles
Since the question does not provide the number of non-hybrid vehicles, we cannot calculate the exact average cost per non-hybrid vehicle.
For part (b), we are given that the government will reduce gasoline consumption by 1.7 million gallons per year and prevent 27 million pounds of carbon dioxide by replacing less efficient vehicles with fuel-efficient ones. To find the average per vehicle, we divide these totals by the number of vehicles.
Average gallons of gasoline saved per year per vehicle = Total gallons of gasoline saved / Total number of vehicles
Average pounds of carbon dioxide saved per year per vehicle = Total pounds of carbon dioxide saved / Total number of vehicles
Since the question does not provide the total number of vehicles, we cannot calculate the exact average gallons of gasoline saved or pounds of carbon dioxide saved per vehicle.