EPA Ratings
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There’s been a lot of confusion recently about the official EPA-certified ranges of certain electric cars. That all-important number goes on the window sticker, and is typically used for advertising and marketing purposes. In November, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk announced, with great fanfare, that the new all-wheel-drive P85D version of the Tesla Model S electric car would actually be more efficient than the P85 model it replaced. DON'T MISS: Tesla Model S P85D 'Insane' Mode: NSFW Video Shows How Fast It Really Is Then the P85D hit the market late last year with an official EPA range of...
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What Is MPGe Anyway? What Is Efficiency For Electric Cars?
A video explaining the meaning of MPGe.
Stephen Edelstein -
Europe's Gas-Mileage Test Results Move Further Away From Reality: Report
Your mileage may vary, as the saying goes. But it turns out that real-world fuel efficiency in European cars varies considerably more from official ratings than in the U.S. And some car brands are so far off from their ratings that a buyer may only get two-thirds of the published fuel efficiency...
John Voelcker -
More EPA Gas-Mileage Rating 'Adjustments' To Come In New Year?
First Hyundai and Kia cut fuel-economy ratings on a dozen models, then Ford on the C-Max. Then, Ford cut ratings on the C-Max again, along with those of five more models. Are there more to come? Industry sources have quietly been discussing in recent weeks that more adjustments to EPA gas-mileage...
John Voelcker -
2015 Ford F-150 Gas Mileage: Best Among Gasoline Trucks, But Ram Diesel Still Highest
Perhaps no gas-mileage ratings have been as eagerly awaited this fall as those for the all-new 2015 Ford F-150 pickup. The redesigned full-size truck with an aluminum body and pickup bed was expected to get better gas-mileage numbers than earlier F-150s. And it has, with a top rating of 22 mpg...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Model S Vs BMW i3: Electric-Car Efficiency Comparison Test
The EPA has dubbed the all-electric 2014 BMW i3 the most efficient production car sold in the U.S., with an impressive 125 MPGe rating--the best of any electric vehicle. By comparison, my 2013 Tesla Model S with an 85-kilowatt-hour battery is rated at only 89 MPGe. That's a hefty 39-percent...
David Noland -
The penalty paid by the two Korean carmakers is reportedly the largest ever for a Clean Air Act violation.
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EPA To Tighten Gas-Mileage Test Rules, Audit More Ratings From Carmakers
The EPA plans to audit more of the gas-mileage test data submitted by carmakers, and tighten its rules for that testing, after fuel-economy ratings on almost 20 recent models proved to be too high and had to be reduced. The move follows the highly publicized rollbacks of gas-mileage ratings over...
John Voelcker -
2015 Kia Soul EV Electric Car Rated: 93 Miles Range, 105 MPGe
The very first 2015 Kia Soul EV electric cars are now being sold in California, adding a 19th plug-in vehicle to that state's market. And its final EPA range and efficiency ratings may drive buyers in other states to demand that they get the chance to buy it too. Given the apparent desire for...
John Voelcker -
2015 Honda Fit Gas Mileage: True 40-MPG Subcompact, Or Not?
The 2015 Honda Fit subcompact is an entirely new model, and for North America, it's built in a new plant in Mexico. That means that its launch was necessarily slow and cautious--in fact, it was delayed two months--and then a bumper upgrade to reinforce crash-safety welds hardly sped up the...
John Voelcker -
2016 Ford Super Duty Pickups To Adopt Aluminum Bodies Too
Only now are selected media getting a chance to spend time with the all-new 2015 Ford F-150 pickup truck, which has a cab and pickup bed made of aluminum. And it will be a couple of months yet before it appears in showrooms. But Ford is looking ahead. DON'T MISS: 2015 Ford F-150 SFE: Highest Gas...
John Voelcker -
2015 Ford Mustang Gas Mileage: EPA Ratings For All Models Released
At its most fuel efficient, the 2015 Ford Mustang is rated at 26 mpg combined.
Stephen Edelstein -
It's embarrassing when an automaker has to reduce its EPA gas-mileage ratings after being investigated by the agency, as Ford did in August 2013 for its 2013 and 2014 C-Max Hybrid. It's even more embarrassing when the company has to cut the rating on those vehicles again--along with five others--just 10 months later, after discovering errors in its testing procedures. FOR MORE DETAIL: Ford Cuts Gas Mileage On 6 Models: What You Need To Know, And Open Questions So you might expect that Ford's sales of hybrid-electric vehicles have been hurt by the two cuts in fuel efficiency on its...
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2015 Ford Mustang EcoBoost Gas Mileage: 26 MPG Combined: UPDATE
Leaked window stickers reveal 2015 Ford Mustang EcoBoost fuel economy.
Stephen Edelstein -
Auto Industry Doing Fine In Meeting Gas-Mileage Goals, It Turns Out
The auto industry came very near to the precipice in 2009, and it agreed to significant new regulations to enable it to step back from the brink. Now, it turns out that it's not only meeting, but actually beating, the required reductions in emissions. That means that, according to the U.S...
John Voelcker -
2015 Ford F-150 SFE: Highest Gas Mileage Model For Aluminum Pickup
Various details have already been released about the radical new 2015 Ford F-150 pickup truck, the first-ever to use an all-aluminum body to reduce weight and improve fuel efficiency. Now another piece of information has leaked out: Ford will offer an F-150 SFE model, a special option package that...
John Voelcker -
EPA Wants Carmakers To Verify Gas Mileage With Road Testing Too
Several automakers have come under fire in recent years over reported EPA gas mileage figures that prove unattainable in the real world. According to the Wall Street Journal, the EPA plans to require car manufacturers to road-test new cars to confirm gas-mileage ratings based on laboratory tests...
Antony Ingram -
2014 Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Car: 87 Miles Range, 84 MPGe
The 2014 Mercedes-Benz B-Class electric car hasn't quite reached dealerships yet--several are telling customers it could be next week--and its EPA ratings for range and efficiency have been something of a mystery too. Now, courtesy of an alert electric-car fan, we know the ratings for the first...
John Voelcker -
There are some pretty efficient cars on sale these days, but it's fair to say that to benefit from the technology, you often have to spend a little more to start with. What if you want to spend as little as possible on fuel, but spend as little as possible on the car itself too? That's where dollars per MPG comes in - a measure to show you how many bucks you have to spend for every 1 MPG in your car. ALSO SEE: Why Lithium-Ion Batteries Degrade With Repeated Charging All prices shown below include the manufacturer's mandatory delivery fee. If more than one transmission is available, that's...
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2014 Toyota Highlander Hybrid: Gas Mileage Review
The Toyota Highlander Hybrid remains the sole seven-seat hybrid vehicle on the market, and it has been redesigned and updated for the 2014 model year. While smaller vehicles--the Prius far ahead of any other model--make up the bulk of U.S. hybrid sales, the 2014 Highlander Hybrid stands at the top...
John Voelcker -
Ford Cuts Gas Mileage On 6 Models: What You Need To Know, And Open Questions
The news yesterday was simple: Ford has lowered the gas-mileage and efficiency ratings for six of its 2013 and 2014 models. Three are hybrids from Ford and Lincoln, two are Ford plug-in hybrids, and the last is the 2014 Ford Fiesta, newly updated, which has revised ratings for four different engine...
John Voelcker -
Hyundai-Kia Topples Honda For UCS 'Greenest Automaker' Title
Honda has long had the reputation of offering fuel-efficient, relatively green vehicles--but this year, it has lost the "Greenest Automaker" laurels that it's held since 1998 to an upstart: Hyundai-Kia. The latest award, detailed in a report that's now been issued six times by the Union of...
John Voelcker -
2014 BMW i3 REx Window Sticker Revealed, 39 MPG On Gasoline: BREAKING
Yesterday we reported on the delay getting range-extended versions of BMW's 2014 i3 electric car to the market, pending the confirmation and fitment of their EPA-approved window stickers. That wait may not be much longer--and now we know the car's official EPA-rated mileage. The 2014 BMW i3 REx is...
Antony Ingram -
2014 Chevrolet Spark With CVT: Gas Mileage Review
We're fond of the Chevrolet Spark minicar; it's by far the best-executed of the several smaller-than-subcompact cars sold today. But our fondness had been limited to the five-speed manual version; the four-speed automatic offered in 2013 was, in a word, awful. Now we've driven a 2014 Chevrolet...
John Voelcker