Gas Mileage
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U.S. car buyers have increasingly ignored passenger sedans and hatchbacks and replaced them with utility vehicles of various sorts, and that's a trend that shows no sign of abating. One reason is that crossovers and SUVs now get better fuel economy than they did 10 years ago, when owning one imposed a significant hit in gasoline costs every week. Gasoline has stayed cheap, and so light utility vehicles are eating significantly into sales of sedans. DON'T MISS: 2019 Chevy Silverado: how a big, thirsty pickup gets more fuel-efficient Even crossover buyers, however, may not realize how large a...
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More efficient gas engines as well as electric cars required to cut carbon emissions
As nations, automakers, and utilities contemplate how to tackle climate change in real terms, a perfect storm of competition is brewing that will—ideally—produce positive change for the rest of us. Automakers and electric utilities have been incentivized to build electric vehicles and...
Mark Stevenson -
How Silicon Valley startup boosted MPG in 2019 Chevy Silverado pickup truck
It looks like GM's investment arm, GM Ventures, has borne some real-world, fuel-saving fruit. Sophisticated engine-control algorithms under the hood of the 2019 Chevrolet Silverado full-size pickup truck, which make the truck's V-8 engines more efficient, came from work done by a company in which...
Mark Stevenson -
Achates engine in Ford F-150 pickup targets 37 mpg, with Saudi oil company backing
One year ago at the Detroit auto show, a company called Achates Power unveiled models of a new kind of internal-combustion engine. With opposed pistons in the middle and crankshafts at either end, it was sufficiently different to startle most visitors who paid attention. That engine came with some...
John Voelcker -
Mazda tops EPA fuel-efficiency rankings for fifth year in a row
Pick-ups and SUVs are rapidly taking over the American automotive landscape, but there's at least one measure in which it benefits an automaker to sell fewer of those vehicles. In the Environmental Protection Agency's latest "Light-Duty Automotive Technology, Carbon Dioxide Emissions, and Fuel...
Mark Stevenson -
2019 Ram 1500 pickup has 48-volt 'mild hybrid' system for fuel economy
The dominant news at the 2018 North American International Auto Show in Detroit was about pickup trucks. Ironically, the Detroit automaker with the fewest electrified models on sale was the only one to bring hybridization to a new truck, in the form of its brand-new 2019 Ram 1500. Fiat Chrysler...
Mark Stevenson -
Is one of your New Year's resolutions to go green? We're here to help with this month's deals on electric, plug-in hybrid, hybrid, and other efficient vehicles. Against last month, the cars offering the best incentives haven't changed—but the incentives themselves have. Click ahead to find out where you can save the most as you kick off 2018. Hybrids The Kia Optima is again the best hybrid deal on the market in January, with a record $5,000 in factory cash in western states ($4,000 elsewhere), says CarsDirect. If you'd rather have a low-interest financing deal instead, Kia is currently...
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Sales-weighted new-car fuel economy stuck at 25 mpg, for fourth year in a row
Even as vehicles become more fuel-efficient, the unending market shift toward crossover utilities, SUVs, and trucks kept the overall average U.S. new fleet efficiency stagnant for the fourth year in a row. For 2017, sales-weighted new-car fuel economy landed at 25.2 mpg, an improvement over 2016 of...
Mark Stevenson -
Gas prices primed to rise in 2018, highest in four years: report
As Americans collectively sigh at their credit-card bills from the holiday season, GasBuddy has some bad news that won't help ease the financial pain. The fuel price-tracking website predicts the cost of a gallon of fuel will rise by $0.19 per gallon in 2018, on average, to the highest level gas...
Mark Stevenson -
Automaker push to delay, modify, or kill CAFE is nothing new
As automakers yet again lobby Washington to roll back planned fuel-economy targets for 2025, they've employed some familiar tactics to drive the point home to lawmakers. It cannot be done. It will cost too much. It will destroy the industry and kill jobs. Consumers do not want this. The science is...
Mark Stevenson -
China is serious on fuel economy: 500-plus models to go out of production
China has taken a major step toward cleaning up the new cars sold in the country beginning January 1. As numerous countries debate plans to end sales of fossil-fuel vehicles completely at points in the future, China has now forced the end of production for some 553 models, starting Monday. The...
Mark Stevenson -
2019 Infiniti QX50 crossover to debut variable-compression engine
Efforts by automakers to increase fuel efficiency and reduce carbon emissions have intensified in recent years as emission rules have tightened and the effects of climate change are better analyzed. While electric cars and hybrids will grow in popularity, the internal-combustion engine remains the...
Sean Szymkowski -
Ahead of the next-generation 2018 Jeep Wrangler's debut, the EPA released fuel-economy estimates for the V-6 powered model of the archetypal SUV. They're higher, as are the ratings for pretty much every new model, courtesy of steadily rising corporate average fuel-economy rules for model years 2012 through 2025. The biggest help for the Wrangler is the addition of an 8-speed automatic to replace the archaic 5-speed automatic transmission in the current Jeep. DON'T MISS: Jeep Wrangler Diesel To Come Well Before Wrangler Hybrid New Wranglers equipped with a 6-speed manual transmission see...
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Saving gas by lifting the pedal: engine braking vs coasting (video)
The way a driver operates a car can produce very different fuel-economy numbers, and when driving downhill, two notable techniques come into play. The first is leaving the car in gear and using so-called engine braking to provide at least some deceleration. But many believe putting a car in neutral...
Sean Szymkowski -
2018 Toyota Camry Hybrid gas-mileage review: going the distance
Toyota can’t be blamed for a lack of effort: The 2018 Toyota Camry Hybrid is dripping with it. From the creased hood and cascading brow to the Modernist center console enclosed by flickers of chrome, the mid-size stalwart is anything but lazy. Our first, limited exposure to the hybrid sedan...
Aaron Cole -
What will happen to U.S. fuel-economy rules through 2025? Poll results
With the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president last November, it became clear that the regulatory environment for businesses would change once he took office. Indeed, dozens of regulations limiting corporate activities involving emissions, fossil-fuel exploration, hiring and firing, and a host...
John Voelcker -
States to force emission, fuel-economy rules showdown with Trump Administration?
Continuing political turmoil and news coverage of the Trump Administration haven't stopped the president's agency heads from drastically reshaping policies on energy, the environment, and emissions. Comments are now being taken on the reopened EPA limits on vehicular carbon emissions for 2022...
John Voelcker -
Complex engine tech gets better ratings, does little in real world: report
Lately, automakers haven't been touting the rising fuel economy of new vehicles, but it has to continue rising to meet reductions in the legal levels of carbon emitted. While major strides in fuel economy have been made over the past five years, the complex engine technologies and other...
Sean Szymkowski -
Even the automaker lobbying group didn't go this far in their complaints about emission and fuel-economy rules for vehicles in the 2022 through 2025 model years. When the Obama Administration approved final EPA emission rules for those years, the automakers complained that the comment period had been cut short. They didn't seriously suggest that the rules should be rolled back, increasing emissions and lowering fuel economy to the levels of earlier years. DON'T MISS: Trump NHTSA might reduce fuel-economy rules for 2/3 of U.S. vehicles The comment period on those EPA rules has now been...
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Mazda's SkyActiv-X: diesel fuel economy from gasoline engine
The internal combustion engine, now more than 200 years old, will be with us for a long time to come yet. Powering more than 1 billion vehicles on the planet and almost 100 million new ones each year, it is the default way to move vehicles along the world's roads. With its carbon emissions now...
John Voelcker -
Europe's tougher new emissions, fuel-economy tests should be closer to real-world results
Fuel-economy ratings for cars sold in Europe have long been wildly unrealistic, sometimes more than 30 percent more optimistic than real-world consumption figures. Today, that will change. As of September 1, two new and more stringent testing regimes are to be used for certifying new vehicles going...
John Voelcker -
Trump NHTSA might reduce fuel-economy rules for two-thirds of U.S. vehicles
Consumers all over the world, but especially in North America, are buying more crossover utility vehicles and fewer passenger sedans and hatchbacks. The U.S. auto industry makes the bulk of its profits on light trucks, which include crossovers, pickup trucks, and even minivans. The Trump...
John Voelcker -
Carmaker lobbyist urges fuel-economy deal to keep emission limits, but stretch them out (updated)
Automakers appear to have united behind a surprising position: reviews of emission rules should not involve scrapping the current standards. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a lobbying group that represents automakers building cars in the U.S., has suggested the Trump administration should...
Sean Szymkowski -
For pickup trucks, more than half all fuel savings come in 2022-2025 CAFE rules
Sometimes, when science and technology issues have economic or political consequences, incorrect or misleading information and analyses can be propagated through the media, leading both decision makers and the public astray. A piece published in April by Forbes, covering the effects of the 2022...
John Briggs