Copyright 2000 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
St.
Louis Post-Dispatch
December 20, 2000, Wednesday, FIVE STAR LIFT
EDITION
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. A3
LENGTH: 675 words
HEADLINE:
GAS MILEAGE STAYS AT 20-YEAR LOW AMID BOOMING TRUCK SALES;
AVERAGE 2000
VEHICLE GETS 24 MILES TO THE GALLON
BYLINE: The
Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
America's love affair with
gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles and pickups is keeping national fuel economy
at a 20-year low, the government says.
With automakers focusing on the
bigger, more powerful vehicles, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found
that average gasoline mileage for 2000 model year passenger vehicles was 24
miles per gallon, the same as last year and the lowest since 1980. The figure
had climbed to 25.9 mpg in 1987 and 1988.
The drop in fuel economy
corresponds to a surge in sales of "light trucks," which include vans, pickups
and sport utility vehicles. Those now account for 46 percent of all U.S.
passenger vehicle sales.
Light trucks tend to weigh more than cars and
get fewer miles to the gallon. The average 2000 car gets 28.1 mpg, while light
trucks get 20.5 mpg.
"Consumers want cars that have certain performance
features," said Gloria Bergquist, spokeswoman of the Alliance of Automobile
Manufacturers, which lobbies for 13 automakers. "We sell cars that get 40 miles
per gallon, but less than 2 percent of consumers buy them."
But Dan
Becker, director of the Sierra Club's global warming program, said Tuesday that
automakers spend much of their advertising budgets to push lower-mileage SUVs
because they are so profitable.
"They have found that the American
public will buy a large pile of steel with plush seats and cup holders, despite
the fact that they will guzzle gas, pollute the air, and roll over and kill
people," Becker said.
Better gas mileage would reduce oil consumption,
lower fuel costs and lower emissions, he said. Passenger vehicles discharge
about 20 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions in the United States.
The federal government's Corporate Average Fuel Economy
standards, adopted in 1975 to boost fuel economy, require each
automaker to reach a 27.5 mpg average fuel economy on new passenger cars and
20.7 mpg for light trucks.
Critics say the standards are too low. But
the auto industry has successfully lobbied Congress since 1996 to block the
Clinton administration from even studying a possible increase.
The EPA
report, published last week, said that new technologies were available that
could increase fuel economy but that automakers instead had focused on building
heavier vehicles and increasing acceleration. Vehicles that are heavier or have
higher horsepower need more gas to operate.
The average fuel economy for
1981 vehicles was 24.1 mpg - slightly higher than in model year 2000. But if the
2000 fleet had the same average weight and performance as in 1981 with today's
technologies, it could have achieved 25 percent higher fuel economy, according
to the report. That would have saved more than 10 billion gallons of gasoline a
year, according to EPA officials.
The weights of cars and light trucks
have increased 10 percent and 16 percent, respectively, since 1981. Today's cars
can go from 0 to 60 miles an hour in 10.3 seconds, on average, down from 14.4
seconds in 1981. Average 0-to-60 acceleration for light trucks has moved from
14.6 seconds to 11.0 seconds.
Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and
DaimlerChrysler AG have been working with the federal government since 1993 to
develop higher-mileage vehicles in a program called the Partnership for a New
Generation of Vehicles.
Under that program, the Clinton administration
challenged automakers to develop by 2004 production prototypes of a family-size
sedan that would get at least 80 miles a gallon. All three automakers have
produced concept cars that at least come close to reaching the goal and are
using the technology to develop production vehicles with better gas mileage.
Ford announced last summer that it would increase the fuel economy of
its SUV fleet by 25 percent by the 2005 model year. GM responded by pledging to
keep the fuel economy of its light truck fleet better than Ford's.
The
report said if automakers increased their passenger vehicle fleets' mileage by
25 percent in five years, average fuel economy would increase to 30 mpg.
GRAPHIC: GRAPHIC Graphic / Chart - Fewer miles per
gallon
The average miles per gallon for all 2000 model year passenger
vehicles is at a 20-year low. The reason is that light trucks, which get about
eight miles per gallon less than cars, now make up almost half of all sales.
Average miles per gallon for all passenger vehicles
'87 & '88
High: 25.9
'00: 24.0
Sales breakdown of 2000 models
Light
trucks: 46%
Pickups: 17%
SUVs:
20%
Vans: 9%
Cars: 54%
Fuel economy of 2000
models
Average miles per gallon
All vehicles: 24.0
Cars:
28.1
Light trucks: 20.5
A
breakdown of light trucks
Pickups: 20.1
SUVs:
20.0
Vans:
22.5
LOAD-DATE: December 20, 2000
