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America's Average New Vehicle Fuel Economy Goes Down In June, Consumers To Blame

After a positive trend over many months, the average fuel economy of new vehicles purchased in the United States of America dropped.
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Average window sticker fuel economy for US new vehicles
We are talking about a 25.3 mpg fleet average this June, reached after American consumers bought more SUVs and pick-up trucks instead of hybrid cars, plug-in hybrids, and even diesel models.

Fortunately, the figure only dropped from 25.4 mpg in May, but the average new vehicle sold in the United States of America is still away from the country’s best result, reached in August 2014, of 25.8 mpg.

According to the experts at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, average fuel efficiency is still increasing in the USA, and the rate of growth is of 20% since the institute first started tracking these figures, in October 2007.

The same average MPG level for new vehicles sold in the USA was previously reached in March 2016, August 2015, September-November 2014, April 2014. The latter was the first month when the value was first reached. We must note that December 2015 and December 2014 had the worst new vehicle mpg average for the United States of America since January 2014’s 24.9 mpg.

The research institute of the University of Michigan calculated the average new vehicle fuel economy estimate by following the EPA Fuel Economy Guide. For cars that had multiple ratings, the average was used, without regard to sales figures for each particular variation.

Low-volume automakers, like Ferrari and Rolls-Royce, were aggregated by brand and received an average fuel economy rating, to simplify the calculations. Moreover, the researchers revealed that the figures are subjective to small changes, as they only considered the most recently available model year of each vehicle, as well as occasionally updated data in the EPA source.

The bottom line of this article is that American consumers have returned to their old habits of purchasing cars that are not as efficient as they could have been. The researchers at the University of Michigan hope to see improved figures in July.
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About the author: Sebastian Toma
Sebastian Toma profile photo

Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland.
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