While the U.S. auto industry set a sales record in 2015, the average fuel economy of light vehicles purchased last year fell below 25 mpg for the first time in nearly two years, a University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute report said.
The average window sticker rating of cars, SUVs, vans and pickups purchased in December was 24.9 mpg -- down from November’s revised 25.1 mpg.
“This decline likely reflects the continuing drop in the price of gasoline in December, and the consequent increased sales of pickup trucks, SUVs and crossovers,” researchers Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle wrote in an email.
December’s fuel economy was down 0.1 mpg from a year earlier. This was the first month since January 2014 in which fuel economy was not at or above 25 mpg.
Fuel economy is down 0.9 mpg from August 2014’s peak of 25.8 mpg, yet it is still up 4.8 mpg since October 2007, when the institute’s monitoring began.
The average fuel economy of vehicles sold in calendar year 2015 was 25.3, also down 0.1 mpg from 2014.
The record of 17,470,659 light vehicles sold in 2015 was a 5.7 percent increase from 2014. The previous record was set in 2000 with 17,402,486 sales.
Total light-truck sales were up 19 percent in December and 13 percent in 2015.
According to AAA data, the national average for regular gasoline was $1.996 per gallon on Thursday, down from $2.191 one year ago.
A second study by the institute tracked the average monthly greenhouse gas emissions of each new-vehicle driver in the country. The University of Michigan Eco-Driving Index for October was 0.84, up 0.01 from September.
According to the report, that value indicates that the average new-vehicle driver produced 16 percent lower emissions in September 2015 than in October 2007 but 6 percent higher than the record low of 0.78 in August 2014.
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