Better fuel economy matters to more US consumers, survey finds

“Whatever you think the cost of fuel economy has been, it has not been so much that consumers won’t buy it,” Mark Cooper, CFA’s director of research, told reporters during a conference call unveiling the report. “The improvement in fuel economy suggests there are the pocketbook benefits.... Automakers are delivering more fuel-efficient cars to the market and consumers are buying them.”

He also said that a CFA econometric analysis had revealed that what most impelled the trend toward the manufacture and sale of higher-efficiency autos is the 2007 federal law, although he acknowledged that higher gasoline prices "matter, too." 

Indeed they do. In 2012, households with at least one vehicle spent almost $3,000 on gasoline, with household gasoline expenditures last year almost 50 percent higher than combined total spending on electricity, natural gas, and heating oil for the home. A decade ago, gasoline costs on average were 13 percent less than home energy spending.

On the manufacturers' side of the ledger, the best-selling cars, pick-up trucks, and vans that get at least 30 m.p.g. are winning a larger share of the market. Comparing popular 2009 models with 2013 models, the new analysis shows the percentage of vehicles that get at least 30 m.p.g. rose from 4 percent of sales to 12 percent, while the percentage getting less than 22 m.p.g. fell from 70 percent to 44 percent, the CFA found.

A big reason for the mileage increase is the rising popularity of four-cylinder vehicles. In 2005, less than 30 percent of the new vehicles purchased had four-cylinder engines, while in 2012 nearly half of new vehicles purchased had four cylinders.

But another reason is the relatively rapid adoption of plug-in electric vehicles such as the Chevrolet Volt and the Nissan Leaf. They are selling at rates much higher than conventional gas-electric hybrids did when they were introduced on the market more than a decade ago, the CFA reported.

Despite competition from fuel-efficient, conventional internal-combustion-engine vehicles, hybrids and all-electric vehicles accounted for more than 5 percent of sales of all new vehicles bought in 2012 – double the level of sales four years ago, the CFA found. Within that group, more than 60,000 sales were of plug-in hybrid and all-electric drive vehicles – almost double the number of standard hybrid vehicles sold at the end of their third year on the market, CFA found. Those annual plug-in sales numbers are projected to soar by 2020.

“Despite what many media pundits would have you believe, consumer acceptance of those vehicles is higher than acceptance of hybrids when they were first introduced,” Dr. Cooper said in a statement. “As battery technology improves and prices go down, there is no question that electrics will play an important role in meeting consumer demand for higher efficiency.”

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