Cars and Drivers

US Auto Fuel Economy Rating 25.3 MPG in September

Paul Ausick

Published: October 6, 2017 10:50 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 7:27 am

The average fuel-economy rating for new vehicles sold in the United States in September 2017 was 25.3 miles per gallon, unchanged from the August average. For all of 2016 the average fuel-economy rating for new vehicles sold was 25.2 mpg, down 0.1 mpg from the 2015 average.

Compared with October 2007, fuel economy ratings on new cars sold has improved by 5.2 miles per gallon, or almost 26%.

While the window sticker average is 5.2 mpg higher than when the data were first collected, the average is 0.2 mpg below its revised all-time high of 25.5 mpg set in August 2014, as well as slightly below the highest monthly average (25.4 mpg in July) for the first nine months of 2017.

The data are based on the average sales-weighted fuel-economy rating printed on a new car’s window sticker and are compiled by Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle of the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute.

The sales-weighted unadjusted Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) performance rating averaged 31.3 miles per gallon in September, a decrease of 0.1 mpg month-over-month and an improvement of 6.6 mpg since October 2007. These values are not directly comparable to the window-sticker ratings because these are adjusted by the EPA and used to derive the window-sticker ratings.

Sales of pickup trucks from the Detroit Three automakers (GM, Ford, Fiat Chrysler) were strong in September, totaling about 202,000 full-size pickups for the month. Because fuel economy is lower for light trucks, the sales-weighted declines in fuel economy ratings are in large part due to higher truck sales.