The average new car isn’t much more fuel-efficient than older ones. Still, to this day, the average vehicle has a range of between 20 and 30 miles per gallon, a stat which was very similar in the 1920s. How come with all the advances we’ve made in the last century is fuel efficiency the same?
In: Technology
While fuel efficiency doesn’t look like it’s gone up that much, it definitely has.
Also don’t forget that with the rise of electric cars, efficiency and emissions are on extreme ends, with MPGe almost an order of magnitude higher, while emissions are at 0. This doesn’t change the average fuel economy in gas cars, as they’re in a separate category of electric cars.
According to the EPA, since 2004, fuel economy is up 29%, power is up 16%, and emissions are down 23%. Compared to 1975, fuel economy has almost doubled while horsepower has increased over 75%.
When you only pay attention to fuel economy (and we’re not even talking about hybrids!), it’s easy to ignore things that also come into play, like innovations in safety, emissions, and power.
Just in the past 5 years, the average has increased almost 1 MPG while decreasing CO2 emissions, with some manufacturers like Kia increasing their MPG by almost 2.5
So it’s a few things. Fuel efficiency has been going up slowly but surely, but when you account for the power increase and emissions reductions, it’s a lot more substantial!
You can see all these stats [here](https://www.epa.gov/automotive-trends/highlights-automotive-trends-report)
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