Skip to footer

Fuel economy for new cars hits an all-time high

Fuel economy has improved drastically in US cars over the past decade, reaching another all-time high in August. The federal government has set new fuel economy goals for the auto industry to reach by 2025. 

|
Rebecca Cook/Reuters/File
A man walks past a row of General Motors vehicles at a Chevrolet dealership on Woodward Avenue in Detroit in April. Fuel economy for the US auto industry reached a new high in August, according to figures from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute.

In October 2007, when the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute began tracking the fuel economy of new vehicles sold in the U.S., it stood at 20.1 mpg. As of last month, the figure had reached 25.8 mpg, and it's possible that as newer, more fuel-efficient 2015 models roll out, we could see averages closer to 26.1 by October -- a full six-mpg gain in seven years.

To get such numbers, UMTRI gathers sales stats from automakers, then figures in the combined city/highway fuel economy ratings commonly found on window stickers. Though it's not a 100-percent accurate means of calculation -- the staff have to make some educated guessed about model years, and fuel stats from low-volume brands like Lamborghini are entered in one lump average, regardless of model specifics. Still, it's very interesting data.

For those who might see these figures and worry about the federal government's new fuel economy standards for 2025 and think, "We'll never make it!", take a breath. Those standards are based on corporate average fuel economy, or CAFE, which is different from "real world" or "window sticker" fuel economy (which can themselves be very different things, especially when it comes to hybrids). 

The formulas used to calculate CAFE are complicated, taking into account production volume, fleet-wide fuel economy averages, and other factors. (Electric and extended-range vehicles can make the math even fuzzier.) The important thing to know is that those formulas yield numbers significantly higher than "real world" fuel economy.

The good news is that UMTRI has recorded a record-high CAFE figure in August, too: 31.3 mpg. That's substantially higher than the 24.7 mpg recorded in October 2007. Is CAFE climbing fast enough to reach 54.5 mpg by 2025? If it were to maintain its present rate of growth, probably not, but an expected influx of hybrids, electric cars, and other advanced-tech vehicles could cause sharp upticks down the road. We'll keep you posted. 

___________________________________________

Follow The Car Connection on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Fuel economy for new cars hits an all-time high
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2014/0908/Fuel-economy-for-new-cars-hits-an-all-time-high
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe