According to the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, the monthly average U.S. new-car fuel economy fell 0.2 mpg to 25.2 mpg in April.
The drop in fuel economy was likely aided by the ongoing demand for SUVs and trucks fueled by lower prices at the pump, Edmunds reports. The current average was last seen February for much the same reason, and though still below the August 2014 peak of 25.8 mpg, the average is still 5.1 mpg higher than when UMTRI first began tracking new-car fuel economy in October 2007.
Meanwhile, the average price at the pump nationwide is $2.62/gallon, per AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report. The current average is $1 less than it was a year ago, but around 30 cents higher than last month. The slight jump is due to increasing demand, seasonal maintenance, and production of summer-blend gasoline. The travel group adds that prices will remain below $3/gallon for the remainder of 2015, “barring any major supply disruptions.”
[Image credit: UMTRI]
Thankfully, the CAFE in my household fleet is about 52.3 mpg, if I just take an average:
Sedona: 20
Optima Hybrid: 38
Leaf: 99
CAFE is a harmonized mean. You can’t add the numbers together and then divide by 3.
Your Sedona uses 5 gallons per 100 miles. Your Optima uses 2.63 gallons per 100 miles. Your Leaf uses the equivalent of 1.01 gallons per 100 miles.
The fleet consumes 8.64 gallons per 300 miles or 34.7mpg
Thank you for the correction.
Regular at my local station in L.A. $3.79 today.
Here’s what happens when we shrink engines to save fuel, but at the same time put everyone in a new rounded-block shaped CUV.
Take heart, CAFE is already inexorably carving that rounded block down to an allowable maximum. In how many new vehicles on the lot right now could you sit behind the wheel and with any seat-height adjustment you care to make but without ducking, see under the RVM?
Once that allowable max gets so low, we’ll have a return to sedans/wagons, just almost all of them will have AWD.
This will also see the return of the PLC!
Speaking of sedans with AWD, I still see a surprising number of Subaru’s oddball Outback sedan here in Pennsylvania…usually two-tone with LL Bean trim or whatever.
That’s called the SUS!
I have seen between one and three in my whole life. Everyone bought the wagons here instead.
This proves that fuel pricing is an effective instrument in modifying vehicle purchasing behavior.
Maybe the US should remove CAFE, allow the manufacturers to create vehicles that they want and use fuel pricing via taxation to influence the market.
After Jack’s positive Prius review I may have to get serious about replacing my ’02 Sable wagon with a Prius V. If everyone else is jumping into the biggest beast they can find, the Toyota dealer must be getting worried about his bottom line.
Donuts to Dollars, I bet that the “drop” is statistically insignificant and well within the standard deviation based on sample size.
No.News.Here.
It should be population data, not a sample. Automakers report deliveries at the end of each month (although they don’t report details on volumes for each drivetrain, so I’m not sure how UMTRI deals with that.)
It really doesn’t seem significant. The graph exaggerates the effect, as the axis doesn’t start at zero.
I have just about given up on hoping that anyone in the press has any understanding of statistics or how to create or interpret graphs. The is the same thing as the attempts by financial pundits to interpret daily fluctuations of 1/2% in the Dow Jones when its control limits are +/- 3%.