Fuel Economy in Automobiles - Fuel Economy Statistics

Fuel Economy Statistics

While the ability of petroleum engines to maximize the transformed chemical energy of the fuel (their fuel efficiency) has increased since the beginning of the automotive era, this has not necessarily translated into increased fuel economy or decreased fuel consumption, which is additionally affected by the mass, shape, and size of the car, and the goals of an automobile's designers, which may be to produce greater power and speed rather than greater economy and range.

The choice of car and how it is driven drastically affects the fuel economy. A top fuel dragster can consume 6 US gallons (23 L) of nitromethane for a quarter-mile (400 m) run in about 4.5 seconds, which comes out to 24 US gallons per mile (5,600 L per 100 km). The other extreme was set by PAC-Car II in the 2005 Eco-Marathon, which managed 5384 kilometres per litre (15,210 mpg; 12,660 mpg).

Both such vehicles are extremes, and most people drive ordinary cars that typically average 15 to 40 miles per US gallon (19 to 50 miles per imperial gallon or 5.6 to 15 L per 100 km). However, due to environmental concerns caused by CO2 emissions, new EU regulations are being introduced to reduce the average emissions of cars sold beginning in 2012, to 130 g/km of CO2, equivalent to 4.5 L/100 km (52 mpg-US, 63 mpg-imp) for a diesel-fueled car, and 5.0 L/100 km (47 mpg-US, 56 mpg-imp) for a gasoline (petrol)-fueled car.

It should be borne in mind that the average consumption across the fleet is not immediately affected by the new vehicle fuel economy, for example Australia's car fleet average in 2004 was 11.5 L/100 km (20.5 mpg-US), compared with the average new car consumption in the same year of 25.3 mpgUS

New Zealand
  • 2008
United Kingdom
  • May 2008
  • August 2008
United States EPA
  • 2008
  • 2009

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