U.S. average fuel economy for 2008-model vehicles may be the best since 1993 as consumers buy fewer light trucks and manufacturers build more-efficient vehicles.
The projected rate of 20.8 miles per gallon is 0.2 mpg better than in 2007, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a report Friday.
Buyers’ embrace of cars over trucks is being driven by gasoline prices that reached a record $4.11 a gallon in July. Cars accounted for 52 percent of U.S. new-vehicle sales through August, compared with 47 percent a year earlier, according to Autodata Corp. in Woodcliff Lake, N.J.
“It is extremely likely that the projected fleetwide average” for 2008 is too low, the EPA said. “This value is based on pre-model year sales projections made by automakers at a time when gasoline prices were considerably lower.”
Automakers are working to meet a U.S. requirement that their combined fleets of cars and trucks average 35 mpg by 2020. The government is gradually increasing fuel-economy mandates toward that level.
Since 2004, light trucks’ efficiency has improved by 1.4 mpg, and cars have gained 1 mpg, the EPA said. Automakers are building more vehicles with technologies such as gasoline-electric hybrid engines and six-speed automatic transmissions.
The changing sales mix reflects greater demand for smaller, car-based sport utility vehicles such as General Motors Corp.’s GMC Acadia and Ford Motor Co.’s Edge. These so-called crossovers get better fuel economy than larger SUVs based on pickup frames.
Truck sales continue to trail automakers’ original projections, so the final U.S. fuel-economy average may be higher than the current estimate, the EPA said. The agency said the companies’ figures date to “the spring and summer of 2007,” when gasoline averaged about $1 less than this year.
