Connect the Dots: Americans Buy More Trucks, Fuel Economy Suffers
On the heels of America’s auto industry growing by over 3% in April 2016, a report from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute says the average fuel economy of those vehicles dipped slightly from the month of March.
Given the rise in sales of SUV and trucks, this should surprise no one except amoebas living under a rock.
Average light-duty vehicle fuel economy for vehicles purchased in April was 25.2 miles per gallon, down from 25.3 mpg in March. This is still better than the 25.0 mpg recorded in December, but down from the 25.8 mpg recorded in August 2014, right before the oil price crash.
With days of $4/gallon gasoline in the rear view mirror, sales of SUVs in America were up 5.1 percent from April 2015 to 110,520. Pickup trucks more than doubled that measure, rising 12 percent to 232,647 from this time last year. As of yesterday, the average cost for a gallon of regular gasoline in America was $2.22, down about 40 cents from one year ago, according to data compiled by AAA.
Despite certain sweater-in-chief CEOs ditching small cars to focus on burly trucks, the sales-weighted unadjusted CAFE performance has skyrocketed since 2007. This is in no small part to the proliferation of smaller displacement engines and manufacturers sending their vehicles to Weight Watchers.
For now, though, consumers are flocking in droves to dealer lots in search of trucks and SUVs, putting a small dent in the nation’s fuel economy and seemingly forgetting that $4 gasoline is not a fictional construct. Perhaps George Santayana was onto something after all.
[Source: Automotive News] [Image: University of Michigan]
Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.
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Free will is a wonderful thing. People get to buy what they want and can afford to operate. But that is not at all what the neo-communist progressives would want you to do; and if they had their way, you'd be driving a Tonka truck powered by a battery and you manspreading fools would have to find a way to haul your junk around. I make up for some of you. I am fully concerned about fuel economy and have found ways without being an idiot hypermiler to make my car that should get 34 mpgs combined into one that averages 43 mpgs combined for over 100k miles. I do the stuff that doesn't cost money - I am a fanatic about tire pressure. I always drive in the slow lane and don't go 1 mph over the speed limit (and drop my speed when tailgated just for fun to see how long the Honduh, Toyoduh, and Mazduh owners - the top three brands of tailgaters in my neck of the woods - after all, I am nearly "Rainman" in my OCD. I know all of my stoplight patterns (yes, friends, there are patterns) and I know the most efficient routes. On my cheap Ford, there are those places where fog lamps go but aren't on mine so I filled them with foam and taped them over (white duct tape blends nicely with the white bumper) - that alone lowered fuel consumption by 5%. Did you know that temperatures increase or decrease gas mileage by up to 25%? Impacts tire pressure and operating temperature zone of the engine. I say this will all due respect for men who buy big trucks and rarely haul anything other than their big bums. I say this to the women who really dig women who buy Toyoduh 4x4's and never carry anything but their 300 pound other half. You are free to buy what you want. But don't tailgate me. I don't brake check (cause you'd hit me and I don't want to be that close to you). I just start dropping the speed until such point as your neanderthal brain can't take it anymore. Hugs and kisses. From a devout Libertarian!
In the end, it all comes down to how automakers respond to CAFE, not necessarily what people will buy and how much fuel costs. See how Ford is aggressively moving towards turbocharged 6-cylinder engines in a bit to raise average fuel economy ratings. Within the next decade, the average light-duty full-size pickup truck might be able to crack 25 mpg in mixed driving without breaking much of a sweat.
For me a pickup has more utility than a 4 door sedan of any kind. True I don't use the bed of my pickup all the time but I use it enough to justify having one. You don't have to have a large late model expensive truck. I don't have anything against 4 door sedans except that a truck just meets my needs better. I doubt most people would be that impressed by a 17 year old midsize truck, but I use it and I don't own it to impress anyone. Maybe if I lived in a condo instead of a house I would feel differently but I use the bed of my truck to haul things that I would have to rent a truck for and the amount of use I get from my own truck is still less expensive than renting a truck when I need one. For many it would be better to rent a truck than to own one, but not everyone has the same needs or wants.
The goal is to burn less gas & release less CO2. I can support that. My current car is larger, more powerful, AND more efficient than my prior one, so I can't complain. But this statistic misses the forest for the trees. fuel consumed equals miles driven / real world mpg. As has been noted countless times, you only get small incremental improvements with improving mpg for most cars. But you can get huge results by reducing miles driven. So what is being done to facilitate that?