Cheap Gas Continues to Siphon Off Fuel Economy
While persistently low gas prices of recent months are good for our pocketbooks, they’re not so good for fuel economy, which continues to decline. According to the latest report from Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle of the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute, the national average fuel economy for all new cars sold in the U.S. dipped in September to match its lowest level this year.
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“The average fuel economy (window-sticker value) of new vehicles sold in the U.S. in September was 25.2 mpg — down 0.1 from August,” researchers said in a statement. “This decline likely reflects the decreased price of gasoline in September, and the consequent increased sale of pickup trucks, SUVs, and crossovers.”
September was the second consecutive month fuel economy declined by 0.1 mpg, and the third time it failed to rise above 25.2 mpg, matching figures for April and February. The average for the first nine months of 2015 is 25.3, down from the average through the same period 2014 of 25.4. Last year, fuel economy also reached a peak of 25.8 mpg in August; the high for 2015, meanwhile, is just 25.5 mpg, reached in May.
Despite these fuel-economy setbacks, the overall mileage of the American fleet continues to improve compared with October 2007, when the institute began tracking it. Fuel economy improved 5.1 mpg over the past eight years from 20.1 mpg.
In related news, the institute’s latest measurement of the Eco-Driving Index, which tracks greenhouse-gas emissions from U.S. vehicles, held steady at 0.82 in July. That figure indicates that the average new-vehicle driver produced 18 percent lower emissions that month than in October 2007, when tracking began, researchers explained. Still, that’s 4 percent higher than last year’s low of 0.78, achieved in August.
