Fuel Efficiency

  • EPA administrator Scott Pruitt  [photo from 2014]

    Cars that get good gas mileage aren't unsafe. In fact, gas savings have more than paid for safety improvements in modern cars, as well as for the technology needed to make the gains in fuel economy.

  • 2018 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon
    EPA rates 2018 Jeep Wrangler turbo-4 gas mileage; plug-in, diesel to come later

    The new 2018 Wrangler is a big deal for Jeep, and in its redesign the company didn't leave its fuel economy stuck in the mud. In addition to the fuel-swilling V-6, the new Wrangler will be available with a more efficient turbocharged 4-cylinder engine, and the EPA has just revealed exactly how...

  • Brown 2011 Volkswagen TDI Sportwagen listed for sale after emissions repairs
    2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI SportWagen driven: Fixed, but does it matter?

    The brown diesel wagon I’m driving spent last winter confined to a dusty parking lot south of Colorado Springs. Thousands of other TDIs, ranging from Beetles to luxurious Audi Q7 crossovers, remain captive in massive holding facilities across the U.S. Some are finally heading home, to used car...

  • Subaru BR-Z production in Japan
    Subaru admits cheating on fuel-economy and emissions tests

    Japan began investigating the company last year for falsifying fuel-economy and emissions reports at its two factories in the country, and Subaru has now confirmed that final testing data was manipulated on more than 900 cars going back to 2002.

  • Shell Airflow Starship fuel economy record truck
    Shell Airflow Starship semi truck aims for fuel-economy record

    Bob Sliwa aims to set a new semi-truck fuel-economy record when he leaves San Diego, Calif., on May 17 in his Shell Airflow Starship truck. Hauling his full-sized trailer fully loaded to the truck's 80,000 pounds capacity, he aims to set the fuel economy record for a loaded Class 8 truck in a...

  • Smog over Los Angeles, courtesy Flickr user steven-buss
    Draft EPA memo freezes fuel economy standards at 42 mpg through 2026

    Rather than continue to ratchet standards up to 54.5 mpg by 2025, as the current law requires, the new proposal would stall out fuel economy increases at just short of 42 mpg in 2020, and hold them there through 2026.

  • President Donald Trump (Photo courtesy Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons)

    Automakers may complain about rising gas mileage standards, but as several have proved over the years, they don't always have to meet them. Another strategy, employed regularly over the years by a few automakers is to ignore the fuel economy standards and just pay the penalties for missing them. Those penalties aren't cheap, and they're now set to go up, following a court ruling that rejected a Trump Administration plan to roll them back. READ THIS: NHTSA delays penalty rise for carmakers who miss CAFE levels Since Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards are based on an average of...

  • 2019 Jeep Cherokee Overland, Hudson Valley, NY, Mar 2018
    2019 Jeep Cherokee gas mileage review

    While plug-in electric cars are steadily growing in sales, they still pale in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of compact crossover utility vehicles sold each year by virtually every major carmaker. In 2017, Toyota's most popular vehicle became the RAV4 small SUV, supplanting the Camry...

  • Gas pump
    Carmakers want emission, CAFE tweaks, not huge rollbacks, but won't say so publicly

    As promised, the Trump administration has embarked on regulatory rollbacks across many fronts, some immediate and others taking longer. It remains unclear whether the EPA's plan to loosen carbon-dioxide emission limits for 2022 through 2025 vehicles will survive inevitable court challenges...

  • Volkswagen TDI diesel vehicles owned by Phil Grate and family, Seattle, Washington
    Possible retrofits in Germany for dirtiest diesels could cost carmakers more

    These are not good times for the makers or owners of diesel cars, particularly in their European stronghold, where on average half of all new vehicles had been sold with diesel engines. Strict new real-world emission tests have proven hard to meet, consumers are starting to shy away from buying new...

  • 2018 Chevrolet Impala
    More sedan, smaller, entry models bite the dust in Detroit

    Two years ago this month, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles essentially threw in the towel on the "automobiles" part of its name. Canceling the compact Dodge Dart and the mid-size Chrysler 200 sedans, the company doubled down on the pickup trucks and utility vehicles that had long been its profit centers...

  • Gas pump
    EPA does not set fuel-economy limits: get this right, journalists!

    Journalism as an industry is under great pressure these days. There are far more people writing "content" than in past decades, and in general they are having to produce more of it for less money than they did 10, 20, or 50 years ago. That's no excuse, however, for getting the basics wrong. DON'T...

  • EPA administrator Scott Pruitt  [photo from 2014]

    Despite the sturm und drang around the announcement by embattled EPA chief Scott Pruitt that he will relax emission limits for 2022 through 2025 vehicles, not much will happen immediately. His determination last week that the Obama administration was "incorrect" and that the limits on those vehicles weren't needed kicks off a lengthy process of rulemaking. If, that is, the reasoning in his determination holds up in court—which it may not. DON'T MISS: Pruitt's EPA decision: 38-page intention vs 1,217 pages of analysis It was clear from the very start there would be court challenges, by...

  • Flooded Car
    Pruitt's EPA decision: 38-page intention vs 1,217 pages of analysis

    While the name of EPA administrator Scott Pruitt is often preceded by "embattled" these days, his agency is now on record as rejecting its own recommendation of just 16 months ago. It concluded in July 2016 that the auto industry had handily met lower carbon-emission limits from 2012 through...

  • 2019 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 outside the Detroit auto show
    Why trucks aren't a CAFE problem for carmakers, despite their lobbying claims

    The automakers claimed that the standards were unrealistic given that consumers are flocking to crossovers and pickup trucks as gas prices remain low. According to a new report by the American Council for an Energy Efficient economy, and to our own analysis, trucks aren't the reason.

  • 2018 Mazda CX-5
    Mazda CX-5 diesel: engine still MIA in compact crossover utility vehicle

    It's the mystery model, the all-but-legendary vehicle still just beyond reach, years after its maker first announced plans to offer diesel engines. Specifically, it's the diesel version of the Mazda CX-5 compact crossover utility vehicle, first revealed in 2016 and later announced as a 2018 model...

  • 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe, 2018 New York auto show
    2019 Hyundai Santa Fe launched with diesel; hybrid, plug-in hybrid for US or not?

    Along with the 250-mile 2019 Kona Electric hatchback it launched Wednesday at the New York Auto Show, Hyundai unveiled an entirely redesigned version of a much higher-volume vehicle. That's the 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe mid-size crossover utility vehicle, which gains size, features, and considerably...

  • Gas pump
    Auto parts suppliers support current fuel-economy rules, overwhelmingly: survey

    As the auto industry and environmental groups count down the days until the NHTSA releases proposals to revise fuel-economy standards, surveys show one industry wants the standards to stay just as they are. That is the auto-parts supply industry, according to a study released Thursday morning by...

  • National Plug-In Day 2012: San Francisco, with 60 Nissan Leafs in front of the Golden Gate Bridge

    Last Tuesday, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt said the agency does not intend to let California set the agenda for national emission limits on vehicles. He suggested to Bloomberg the EPA plans to cut emission rules aggressively to respond to carmakers' pleas for easing of the corporate average fuel economy rules for 2022 through 2025 that they had agreed to in 2012. Even before Pruitt's latest comments, however, California's attorney general has taken a strong public stance against any such rollbacks. DON'T MISS: Pruitt won't let CA set emission standards; EPA not looking at post-2025 rules...

  • Exhaust emissions from tailpipe [photo: Simone Ramella, 2005, used under Creative Commons 2.0]
    Cutting carbon, meeting real-life emission tests, new electric cars to hurt profits, VW says

    Well, that's awkward. At its annual media briefing on Wednesday, Volkswagen Group executives said the costs of meeting new emission tests in the EU, lowering carbon emissions globally, and launching multiple new electric models would eat into the company's profits. With the company's diesels in...

  • 2019 Volkswagen Jetta
    How 2019 Volkswagen Jetta inched up its EPA fuel-economy ratings

    While plug-in electric cars get lots of media attention, they remained just 1 percent of U.S. vehicle sales last year. And while the Trump Administration appears dead-set on rolling back emission limits and fuel-economy requirements established years ago, that effort will undoubtedly face lengthy...

  • 2018 Hyundai Elantra
    Best deals on hybrid, electric, fuel-efficient cars for March 2018

    Not a lot has changed since last month: Buyers continue to move from passenger sedans to crossovers and trucks, and gasoline remains relatively cheap. That means you can pick up some bargains fuel-efficient and electrified vehicles. DON'T MISS: Lexus lowers hybrid prices a lot to cut premium over...

  • 2018 Toyota Prius
    Toyota details next-generation hybrids, more efficient gasoline engines

    Cars with plugs may be the cleaner and greener future, but at the moment, they make up only about 1 percent of global sales approaching 100 million vehicles a year. That means that automakers continue to work ceaselessly on more efficient gasoline engines and lighter vehicles to put them in. Last...

  • 2018 Lexus RX L, 2017 Los Angeles Auto Show
    Lexus lowers hybrid prices to reduce premium over gasoline substantially

    Gas is cheap in the U.S. and has been for years. Hybrids are no longer a cutting-edge or cool technology; they're just another powertrain. The result is that hybrids have been quietly ebbing as a proportion of total vehicle sales. DON'T MISS: 2018 Lexus RX 450hL hybrid three-row SUV priced from...

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