U.S. fuel economy is higher than ever, in part, because of increasing sales of hybrids and electric vehicles.
Despite plunging fuel prices that helped drive a sharp increase in sales of pickup trucks and utility vehicles last year, the fuel economy of the typical new vehicle sold in the U.S. hit an all-time record in 2013.
The average window sticker of new vehicles sold in the U.S. in December was 24.8 mpg – down 0.2 mpg from the revised value in November, but up 4.7 mpg from the value in October 2007, the first month of monitoring by the University of Michigan Transportation Institute.
The average fuel economy of all vehicles sold during the 2013 calendar year was 24.8 miles per gallon, which was up 1 mile per gallon from the average fuel economy posted for 2012 and 3.9 mpg from 2008, according to the U-M survey. For the 2013 model year, which ended October 1, U-M reports the fuel economy rating for all vehicles is 24.7 mpg, which is the highest level ever.
The University of Michigan Eco-Driving Index – an index that estimates the average monthly emissions of greenhouse gases generated by an individual U.S. driver – stood at 0.80 in October an improvement of 20% since October 2007.
At least part of the improvement in the fuel economy numbers comes from the growing number of electric and hybrid vehicles now found on American roads.
Sales of battery-powered vehicles and hybrids totaled more than 578,000 units last year, up more than 100,000 units from 2012 and accounting for about 3.7% of all new autos sold in the U.S. last year, according Autodata Corp. Sales of electric vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf and plug-in electric vehicles reached almost 100,000 as automakers moved to meet quota imposed by the state of California.
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Overall, Toyota, with its Prius family was the top seller of electric- and hybrid-drive vehicles, delivering 344,892 last year. Ford was next as its sales of hybrids, plug-ins and battery-electric vehicles increased 146% to 87,771. GM hybrid and electric vehicles dropped 15% to 48,724 in 2013 despite the introduction of the well-received Chevrolet Spark EV.
In addition, Hyundai sold more than 22,500 Sonata hybrids last year, surpassing the 20,616 sold by Honda, which has eight electric-and hybrid-drive models.
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Meanwhile, Carlos Ghosn, Nissan’s chief executive officer and a major proponent of battery-electric vehicles, predicted in an interview that aired on CNBC that sales of the Nissan Leaf EV in the U.S. will increase again in 2014.
“We are now on a trend of 3,000 cars a month in the U.S., which is about 36,000 cars” a year, Ghosn said. “The next step is moving up to 4,000 a month, which is going to be approximately 50,000,” he said, though he did not specify when the Japanese automaker expects to reach the figure.