Americans’ ability to cruise big cars along endless blacktop is as iconic as apple pie.
But a new report by a major energy-research group shows the nation’s love affair with driving cooled a bit in response to higher gasoline prices.
According to a report published by Cambridge Energy Research Associates, the rate of growth in gasoline demand slowed sharply last year to 0.3 percent from 1.6 percent per year from 1990 to 2004.
Gasoline demand has picked up this year from the previous one but still trails historical growth rates, rising at a 1 percent rate during the first 11 months of 2006.
This contrasts sharply with significantly faster rates of growth from 1990 through 2005 in most emerging countries including China (6.6 percent), India (6.2 percent) and Brazil (4.5 percent), the report stated.
Furthermore, motorists’ average mileage dropped for the first time in 25 years.
The drop in gasoline demand neatly coincides with the rise of gasoline prices. Retail-pump prices rose from $1.59 a gallon in 2003 to $2.30 in 2005. Through mid-November of this year, prices have averaged $2.61, hitting a high of $3 in July, according to the report.
What’s more, many Americans are doing the once-unthinkable – forgoing gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles for smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.
“Americans’ love affair with the automobile has in recent years turned into a passion for SUVs and minivans,” the report stated. “But the passion has cooled, with new purchases of light trucks, SUVs and minivans declining in 2005 and 2006 for the first time since 1990.”
By 2005, the share of all vehicles that were SUVs rose to 41 percent from just 16 percent in 1975. SUV sales peaked at 56 percent of all new vehicles sold in 2004. The SUV share of sales slipped to under 55 percent in 2005 and 53 percent in 2006.
