December 27, 2001

Sales of SUVs, Minivans and Pickups Surpass Cars for First Time
Lax efficiency standards increase pollution and foreign oil dependence

The U.S. car market has officially gone truck. Data from Ward's AutoInfoBank indicates that 2001 sales of light trucks - SUVs, minivans and pickups - will top cars for the first time. (Final sales figures for the year are expected in early January; sales of light trucks exceeded those of cars for the first 11 months of 2001.) The increase in SUV sales has fueled a growing dependence on foreign oil and exacerbated global warming. Although the technology exists to bring the fuel economy of light trucks into line with cars, auto industry resistance and congressional inertia have stymied efforts to make SUVs more fuel efficient.

Light truck sales have increased by 270 percent over the last 25 years while car sales have increased by 5 percent. SUVs are the big winner in the changing automotive market - their sales have grown by a factor of 17. With light trucks now accounting for more than half of all vehicles sold, the average new vehicle travels less on a gallon of gas than it did in 1980. This is because regulatory loopholes allow light trucks to meet an average fuel economy standard of 20.7 miles per gallon while today's cars meet an average of 27.5 mpg.

"We burn 1.2 million more barrels of gasoline per day because SUVs and lights trucks are less efficient than cars," said Jason Mark, UCS Clean Vehicles Program Director. "That's about twice as much oil as we import from Iraq, or three-quarters of what we import from Saudi Arabia."

The average light truck on the road burns over 40 percent more gasoline than the average car. This fuel economy gap means that American drivers pay an additional $20-$25 billion at the pump. US cars and trucks emit more heat-trapping CO2 annually than most other countries emit from all sources combined. Higher light trucks sales only worsen global warming. (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projects that 2001 will be the second warmest year on record.)

Studies from UCS and the National Academy of Sciences both find that fuel economy could be dramatically improved with existing technology. Research by UCS engineers finds that SUVs could reach 40 miles per gallon with improvements such as direct fuel injection, variable valve control engines that shut off instead of idling, six-speed automatic transmissions, lighter but structurally-sound "unibody" frames and reducing rolling resistance. A 40-mpg SUV would save its owner more than $5,000 at the gas pump over the vehicle's life.

"An automotive fleet average of 40 mpg by 2012 would save 1.9 million barrels per day -- more oil than we currently import from Saudi Arabia," Mark said. "Tapping the ingenuity of Detroit's engineers will save more oil in just 10 years than the Arctic Refuge could economically produce in 60 years."