All 2013 model year vehicles will display a new fuel economy and environment label to provide consumers with more comprehensive fuel efficiency information.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has just released the 2013 Fuel Economy Guide, which covers efficient and low-emission vehicles in a variety of sizes. Of note, this year is the growing availability of hybrids, as well as the increasing number of pure electric vehicles. The guide is useful in helping sort the most fuel-efficient and therefore the lowest greenhouse gas emitting vehicles that are on sale in the U.S.
The online version of the guide allows consumers to enter their local gasoline prices and typical driving habits to receive a personalized fuel cost estimate. The 2013 guide also includes a greenhouse gas rating for each model. Consumers may view the guide at fueleconomy.gov and it will be available in hard copy at dealer showrooms.
This year’s guide gives consumers a range of information that they can use to select their next fuel-efficient vehicle, whether they want to consider an electric vehicle or one that uses a conventional fuels. This year, for the first time, EPA has added a second top ten list of most efficient vehicles — separating advanced technology vehicles from conventional gasoline and diesel vehicles.
According to EPA, electric and plug-in hybrid electric models are the most fuel-efficient and lowest-emission vehicles available today and are slowly becoming more common. Caveat here: the data does not include how the electricity is generated, a crucial distinction since 40% of electricity in the U.S. comes from burning coal a notorious source of CO2, among other pollutants. At the same time, consumers may still look up the conventional gasoline and diesel models that offer good fuel efficiency in their class.
The 2013 guide once again provides an estimated annual fuel cost for each vehicle. The estimate is calculated based on the vehicle’s miles per gallon (mpg) rating and national estimates for annual mileage and fuel prices.
All 2013 model year vehicles will display a new fuel economy and environment label to provide consumers with more comprehensive fuel efficiency information, including five-year fuel costs or savings compared to the average new vehicle, as well as new ratings for greenhouse gas and smog. These labels are required for model year 2013 Some automakers voluntarily adopted the new label design on some 2012 models.
More information, including a complete version of the guide and details on the fuel economy labels: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/ and at http://fueleconomy.gov/m/ for mobile devices.
