5. 2 MPG from 2011 to 2012, the EPA is predicting slower growth for
this year, but still expects to reach the government standard of
54.5 by 2025.
6. The big leap in 2012 is largely in part to manufacturers adding
turbochargers to smaller engines and improving overall engine and
transmission performance.
8. Although the EPA expects an increase of only .1 mile per gallon by
the end of 2015 the results are slightly skewed by the 2% increase
in truck and SUV sales.
9. Hyundai and Kia contributed to a slowing of progress by delaying
the production and selling of higher miles per gallon 2014 models.
10. Light trucks have increased 16.5% since 2014 as car sales have only
increased by 2.3%.
11. As of September Trucks accounted for 51.3% of all vehicles sold
this year.
13. Without the increase in trucks and SUVs and the production of
Hyundai and Kia's newer models the increase would have been
approximately .4 mpg.
14. While this number seems small, it would amount to a 2% increase
in performance from 23.6 mpg to 24 mpg which, in the automotive
industry is a solid margin of improvement but still short of the
2012-2013 gains.
16. Two heavy contributors to the rise of trucks and SUVs are the
relatively low gas prices throughout the year and the significantly
improved gas mileage of these vehicles.
17. Trucks and SUVs have had a combined increase of 27% in gas
mileage since 2004 while cars saw a respectable 23% increase in
performance.
18. Alongside the lowest average gas prices since 2011 the shift to
larger vehicles was not a surprise for the market.
19. This forecast may have been why Kia and Hyundai delayed their
newer, higher-mpg models.
20. Experts believe that the rather large influx of truck and SUV
purchases are due to people upgrading their existing truck or SUV
and that the market will see a noticeable decrease in their sales in
the following years.
21. However, with big changes coming to the truck industry when the
aluminum body F-150 is hitting car lots later this year.
22. Due to the sheer volume of F-150s sold throughout the US, the F-
150 could single-handedly increase the average miles per gallon.