Fuel Economy

  • 2018 BMW 5-Series

    BMW has announced it will resurrect the diesel 5 Series sport sedan, in the form of a 540d model, one year after the introduction of a thoroughly updated 5 Series. The company says the diesel edition will list for $62,995, including destination, once it arrives at dealerships in February. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the new executive sedan is rated for 26 mpg city, 36 highway, 30 combined in all-wheel-drive form—the only driveline available. DON'T MISS: For 2018, only 12 diesel vehicles offered in U.S. (guess who has most) Those numbers might seem a bit low to...

  • 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV
    Best deals on hybrid, electric, fuel-efficient cars for January 2018

    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...

  • Sales-weighted fuel economy, 2008-2017, United States, from UMTRI
    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...

  • Gas + Electricity sign: how long until we see this for highway rest stops?   [mockup: John Briggs]
    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...

  • On-Road Fuel Economy of Vehicles in the United States: 1923-2015 (Sivak and Schoettle)
    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...

  • 2016 BYD Tang plug-in hybrid SUV, made in China
    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...

  • 2018 Jeep Wrangler

    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...

  • Will you use less fuel during engine braking or simply by coasting?
    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...

  • 2018 Toyota Camry Hybrid
    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...

  • 2018 Hyundai Accent
    2018 Hyundai Accent small sedan debuts at minor auto show

    Hyundai decided to skip the major auto-show circuit and debut its redesigned Accent subcompact sedan at a relatively minor auto show. The Korean automaker revealed the 2018 Hyundai Accent at the Orange County Auto Show in California, which boasts a new design, more interior space, and an updated...

  • 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor
    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...

  • U.S. Capitol Building
    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...

  • 2018 Toyota Prius C

    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 improvements turn out to have less effect in real-world driving than the numbers would indicate. In layman's terms, a tiny turbocharged inline-4 cylinder engine may not be as efficient as lab results suggest. DON'T MISS: Fuel-efficiency rules create jobs too, contrary to industry plaints Those findings come...

  • Gas pump
    What will happen to US fuel-economy rules to 2025? Take our Twitter poll

    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...

  • 2020 Mazda 3 prototype
    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...

  • Honda Civic 1.6 i-DTEC diesel (European version)
    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...

  • 2018 Chevrolet Equinox Diesel, first drive, Teaneck, NJ, Aug 2017
    2018 Chevrolet Equinox Diesel (very brief) first drive

    We spent a few days with a gasoline-powered 2018 Chevy Equinox back in May, but now we've driven a much rarer version. The 2018 Chevrolet Equinox Diesel will start to arrive at U.S. Chevy dealers within two weeks, the company says. On Wednesday, as part of a comprehensive presentation on the five...

  • 2017 Ram 1500 Rebel Blue Streak
    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...

  • Gas pump

    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 back a deal that keeps existing EPA vehicle emission limits, but stretches out the timeline. Lower emission limits correspond to higher fuel-economy standards; the regulations are set by the EPA and NHTSA, respectively, but must correspond. DON'T MISS: NHTSA to review gas-mileage rules: could...

  • 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor
    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...

  • 2017 Mazda MAZDA3
    2019 Mazda 3 to feature world-first HCCI engine for efficiency: report

    It's a technology that's been a sort of Holy Grail in the auto industry for at least a couple of decades. Now Mazda, one of the smallest global automakers, plans to introduce it in a radical new engine to be used in a future Mazda vehicle in 2019. It's called homogeneous charge compression...

  • Gas pump
    NHTSA to review gas-mileage rules: could freeze 2021 limits, even roll back (updated)

    The U.S. Department of Transportation said yesterday the NHTSA is preparing to revise corporate average fuel economy requirements for model years 2022 through 2025. The proposed version of those regulations, which was issued by the Obama Administration in 2012, included steady increases for each of...

  • 2018 Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class
    Next Mercedes-Benz small cars to get even tinier engines

    Not so many years ago, a 1.2-liter engine would only have been found in the U.S. in the smallest and least impressive of subcompact cars. It might have been a 3-cylinder, and certainly wouldn't have had even 100 horsepower. But times change, and engines of that size will soon be found even in the...

  • 2018 Chevrolet Equinox 2.0T
    2018 Chevy Equinox Diesel pricing to start just above $31,000

    Every now and then, resourceful journalists dredge up automotive news before it emerges in a sanitized press release from the maker in question. So it is with the pricing on the 2018 Chevrolet Equinox Diesel, one of two diesel-powered compact crossover utility vehicles expected to hit the U.S...

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