Who’s the most efficient automaker of them all? According to TrueCar’s projections for May, Smart, MINI, Hyundai, VW and Scion top the list for sales-weighted fleet fuel economy. Meanwhile, the industry average of 22.4 MPG might not sound like much, but when you convert it to the “unadjusted” numbers used for CAFE, that 22 MP turns into about 28 MPG. Considering the 2015 CAFE standard is 35.5 MPG between cars and trucks, that average shows the industry to be fairly well on-track to comply with the initial CAFE ramp-up. In fact, since 35.5. MPG CAFE equals about 27 MPG EPA, it seems that the top three brands on this list (Smart, MINI, Hyundai) can pretty much twiddle their thumbs between now and 2015, as they’re practically in compliance with the 35.5 MPG standard already.
Latest Car Reviews view all
Latest Product Reviews view all
Recent Comments
- Ah_non_e_mouse: Interesting, in my experience any automatic climate control system I’ve owned has worked very...
- Oberkanone: Over 10 BILLION dollars sucked out of North America to fund new models for Europe by various...
- RHD: Agreed about the lack of colors. A lot of new vehicles look like they just clearcoated the primer.
- stuki: In a world in decay, “dated” is a compliment.
- stuki: Competing head on with Camry and Accord, like competing with Google in internet search, has to rate among the...
Car Reviews By Make view all
New Car Research
Who We Are
- Tim Healey
Managing Editor - Matt Posky
News and Social Media Contributor - Timothy Cain
Sales Analyst - Murilee Martin
Junkyard Finds Author - Matthew Guy
Contributor - Chris Tonn
Contributor
- Adam Tonge
- Bozi Tatarevic
- Corey Lewis
- Jo Borras
- Mark Baruth
- Ronnie Schreiber
Ouch – my eyes are hurting trying to read that chart. I’ll go look at it later when I get to steal the iPad from my son.
This is the same Smart whose larger cars have been failures and the same MINI who just brought out an SUV?
I just don’t get it how some manufactures are going to do meet 2015 Cafe? Better buy that HEMI Grand Cherokee soon…
Everyone (big) will and can follow Hyundai’s lead. It was obvious what needed to be done a while ago, bit companies want to profit now though.
I am shocked that VW is there already. Seriously.
And they don’t even sell us the Polo, nor the Fox.
One guesses this must be one of the key reasons why they don’t sell in the US the V8 Touareg (TDI), nor the air suspension, nor the lockable differentials anymore. And they must be celebrating they did away with the Phaeton.
This chart also explains why at long last Mercedes decided to bring smart under its U.S. corporate roof, effective July 1st.
Finally, this chart explains why CAFE is so damaging to native brands: look at the poor saps at GM, Chrysler and Ford, sitting at the bottom. It is they who have to revamp the entire product line between now and 2015. Basically remake their entire business! Here’s a tip: sell their stock.
How many Phaetons and V8 Touaregs would they sell? So few compared to Passats that it wouldn’t matter
The fewer trucks they sell, the higher their targets are going to be. Smart, MINI, and Hyundai do not sell a whole lot of trucks.
I think TrueCar should, at least, split it into ‘cars’ and ‘trucks’, just as CAFE, if it pretends to do a half-decent job.
“Who’s the most efficient automaker of them all? According to TrueCar’s projections for May, Smart, MINI, Hyundai, VW and Scion top the list.”
That’s lying. This chart doesn’t show that. It only shows that these brands have a product mix that has a high percentage of small cars, not that their cars are any more efficient than their competitors of the same class.
Efficient = Less fuel for the same job completed.
A smart is not more efficient than a Fit, because it has only 2 seats. A Mini is not more efficient than an F150, because it can’t haul half ton.
Sorry, but those are the most-efficient automakers on a sales-weighted basis. I realize that none are full-line manufacturers, but as far as CAFE compliance goes, that doesn’t matter. We’ve already established that truck compliance is the hardest part of CAFE.
The easiest way to gain truck compliance is to spin off the “trucks” as a separate operation. The establishment of ‘Ram’ as a brand could be a first step towards that.