Tag: figures

Study: Average new-car fuel economy figures continue record pace

Filed under: Budget, Hybrid, Honda, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Electric

Manufacturers are making more efficient cars and trucks; we’ve known that to be true for some time. Nearly every new car has some sort of trick to eke a few extra miles out of every gallon of fuel. Whether that be turbocharging, active aerodynamics or hybrid technology/electrified powertrains, the fact is that our vehicles are more efficient than ever before.

Thanks to a recent study by TrueCar, we’ve got fresh quantitative data to support the above statements. For the fourth month in a row, we’ve seen an improvement in national fleet fuel economy. We Americans are 0.7 miles per gallon more efficient than we were last month, and our cars are 1.6-mpg better than at this time last year. That said, we’re still down on 2013’s high, which was set back in January at 24.5 mpg.

Not only does this reflect the improved technologies in our vehicles, but it demonstrates a changing mindset among consumers, who are purchasing more efficient vehicles despite the relative stabilization of fuel prices. Every fuel-efficient model sold drives its manufacturers fleet average up.

The top three brands among mainstream manufacturers aren’t a huge surprise. Hyundai, which offers 10 models with four-cylinder engines (including the excellent Elantra range) took the top spot, while the diesel and turbocharged models from Volkswagen finished just 0.8 mpg behind Hyundai’s 27-mpg average. Honda is further back in third, thanks to its remarkably efficient four-cylinder engines. American makes didn’t fare as well, with Ford, General Motors and Chrysler all finishing below the 23.7-mpg industry average. This isn’t a huge surprise, though, as the Detroit Three are responsible for the vast majority of eight-cylinder pickups and muscle cars sold in the US.

Continue reading Average new-car fuel economy figures continue record pace

Average new-car fuel economy figures continue record pace originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 13 Jul 2013 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: GM will no longer release monthly production figures

Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing, GM

General Motors has announced that it will no longer disclose monthly production figures to automotive data providers. Automotive News reports that GM notified research and data providers IHS Automotive, Automotive News Data Center and Autodata Corp. about the change, saying that the company will now provide numbers for wholesale deliveries. Up until now GM, along with many other car companies, provided monthly North American production figures, broken out by individual models.

The automaker says that the new policy is due to a change in the way it records financials for vehicles. In the first part of this year, GM started assigning profit and loss to the country in which a vehicle is sold, rather than to the facility at which it was manufactured. This, says GM, makes the production numbers less critical to keep track of.

Concerns about the change in reporting are multitudinous. Many automotive suppliers use production forecasts that are based on real production data to plan their own manufacturing schedules for coming months. What’s more, Automotive News tells us that the GM numbers have been used in many other standard indicators of economic health in the US, including those published by the Federal Reserve. While models exist for estimating the production data, nobody is exactly sure how accurate they’ll be, or what the longer term fallout in the industry will look like.

GM will no longer release monthly production figures originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Chevrolet tries to make sense of Volt mileage figures

Filed under: Hybrid, Sedan, Videos, Chevrolet, GM, Electric

Click above to watch the video after the jump

The 2011 Chevy Volt is, in several ways, like every other car on the road. Four wheels, four doors, a steering wheel… but not every vehicle has a gas engine, electric motor, massive lithium ion battery and a spot to plug into the wall. It’s a bit complicated at first, and perhaps more so when looking at the Environmental Protection Agency’s official fuel economy figures.

The EPA tells us that the Volt averages 35 miles on an electric charge, but that number can vary anywhere from 25 to 50 miles depending on the conditions. In gas-only mode, the Volt manages 37 miles per gallon. Combine a full tank of gas with a maxed-out electric charge and you can travel a total of 379 miles. Then there is the EPA equation that compares the cost of electricity compared to the typical cost of gasoline, with a resulting efficiency estimation of 93 MPGe. That’s miles per gallon equivalent. All-told, the EPA gave the Volt a 60 mpg combined score. So… we’re looking at mpg numbers of 37, 93 and 60 mpg. And 35 miles with virtually no gas whatsoever, but really it’s between 25 and 50 miles.

You know what… we can explain this until we’re blue in the face, but we probably won’t do as well as the 2:20 video that is available after the jump. General Motors breaks down the EPA’s Mensa label in a language just about anyone can understand. Click through and enjoy.

Gallery: 2011 Chevrolet Volt: First Drive

2011 Chevrolet Volt2011 Chevrolet Volt2011 Chevrolet Volt

[Source: YouTube]

Continue reading Video: Chevrolet tries to make sense of Volt mileage figures

Video: Chevrolet tries to make sense of Volt mileage figures originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 23 Dec 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LaHood releases 2009 distracted driving crash figures ahead of summit

Filed under: Government/Legal, Safety

Transportation Seceratary Ray La Hood

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has released his department’s findings on the impact of distracted driving on highway safety in 2009, and according to research conducted by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, 5,474 people died due to distracted driving last year, with another 448,000 people injured. Those are big numbers, and NHTSA says the number of people killed due to distracted driving marks a total of 16 percent of all traffic fatalities last year. In 2005, the deaths were just 10 percent of the total figure. Even as high as those numbers are, La Hood warns that they may misrepresent the severity of the problem.

NHTSA says that not all law enforcement agencies are trained to recognize when an accident is caused by distracted driving, and as a result, the actual figures may be much higher than what’s been reported.

LaHood is hosting a distracted driving summit in Washington, D.C. aimed at increasing awareness about the problem nationally. Hit the jump for a look at the press release.

[Source: NHTSA]

Continue reading LaHood releases 2009 distracted driving crash figures ahead of summit

LaHood releases 2009 distracted driving crash figures ahead of summit originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 20 Sep 2010 14:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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