For the second consecutive model year, the light-duty automotive industry outperformed the national greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions standards by a wide margin, according to a new report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Overall industry compliance in model-year 2013 was 12 grams/mile – or 1.4 mpg – better than required by the 2013 standard.
The EPA's second annual report presents detailed information about how individual firms are complying with GHG emissions standards for cars and light-duty trucks.
The study says the majority of manufacturers (representing more than 99% of sales) met both the 2012 and 2013 standards. The remaining manufacturers have several more years to come into compliance. Furthermore, the report says automakers are using the optional flexibilities built into the standards, such as improved air conditioning systems and the use of fleet averaging.
According to the EPA, model-year 2013 vehicles achieved an all-time record average of 24.1 mpg – a 0.5 mpg increase over the previous year and an increase of nearly 5 mpg since 2004. Average carbon-dioxide emissions from cars and light-duty trucks are also at a record low. Fuel economy has increased in eight of the last nine years. The agency says there are more than three times as many 30-mpg vehicles than just five years ago, and fuel economy for SUVs has been increasing faster than for any other vehicle types.
EPA's GHG emissions standards cover light-duty vehicles from model-year 2012 to 2025. The agency projects the standards will save consumers who purchase a new model-year 2025 vehicle more than $8,000 in fuel costs over that vehicle's lifetime.
More information on the report and the EPA's GHG standards is available here.
