Fuel Economy Continues to Sputter Amid Truck Sales, Cheap Gas
Inexpensive gas is a double-edged sword: It’s lighter on motorists’ wallets but can weigh heavier on fuel economy. Although the sustained downward trend in gas prices during the past year has slowed in recent months, it continues to be a likely factor driving consumers’ renewed appetite for pickup trucks and SUVs. As a result, the so-called window-sticker fuel-economy rating for new vehicles sold in the U.S. has suffered, according researchers at the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute.
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“The average fuel economy of new vehicles sold in the U.S. in June was 24.5 mpg — down 0.1 mpg from May,” the institute’s Michael Sivak reported. “This decline likely reflects sales of light trucks and SUVs in June.”
Still, such a small dip in mileage figures is not uncommon between May and June, and has occurred in all but one of the past eight years since the monthly study began. Moreover, the average for the first six months of 2015 is still slightly better than the average for the same period in 2014 by about 0.03 mpg; that’s despite three straight months of declines compared with each of the same months the previous year. Also, since tracking began in 2007, fuel economy has improved 5.3 mpg, even amid recent setbacks.
The fact remains, however, that the U.S. has failed to repeat its all-time-best window-sticker rating of 25.8, reached in August 2014. June 2015’s figure is 0.4 mpg off from that benchmark. This water treading over the past 10 months could continue as long as gas prices remain low — a question that remains open-ended as global strife threatens to inflate the cost of oil.
Unsurprisingly, as U.S. fuel economy worsened, so did its emissions ratings. According to the University of Michigan Eco-Driving Index, which estimates the average monthly emissions of greenhouse gases generated by an individual U.S. driver, emissions were up slightly: 0.85 in April compared with 0.82 the month before. While that means the average new-vehicle driver produced 9 percent higher emissions than the record low — also set in August 2014 — the figure was still 15 percent lower than in October 2007.
