The government has released its annual look at fuel economy figures for all major auto brand in the United States, as standards become emissions become more stringent and fuel economy mandates loftier.
For the 2014 model year of vehicles sold this entire year, General Motors placed in at 22.8 mpg. That ties local rival Ford, which also managed 22.8 mpg. Fiat-Chrysler lagged behind in fuel economy, placing last on the list at a mere 20.8 mpg.
According to The Detroit News, it is expected Ford will jump to 23.5 for the upcoming 2015 model year specifics, while GM is expected to tumble to 21.9 as SUV and pickup sales heat up amid dirt-cheap gasoline prices.
The industry leaders continue to be Japanese automakers, with Mazda taking the crown at a whopping 29.4 mpg average (without forced induction of any sort, we may remind you). Overall, the entire industry’s average fuel economy grew to 24.3 mpg, up from 24.1 mpg last year.
Comments
Last I looked up all the specifics, GM still meets their own CAFE requirements by a solid margin. The more full size trucks/SUVs they sell, the lower their average CAFE requirements are. Where as someone like Mazda who makes all small cars might actually have a harder time meeting their CAFE requirement because of the classification their vehicles fall into.
Chrysler is in a bind right now as their most popular cars are not good MPG cars and most are heavy and need replaced. Their smaller cars are not selling as expected.
Also they lack any real legitimate Hybrids and EV cars that contribute much.
They are in need of some attention and as of now Alfa looks to not be coming close to their projections by 2018 so they are reassessing the Chrysler line and I expect they will get some of the Jeep profits they should have gotten to help them grow.
Ford has done well to down size their engines and GM has done an even better job with the smaller engines and lower weight of their new products. Both hold a strong advantage. GM I feel even better with less mass as that is the more difficult one to do.
The Big 3 Detroit manufacturers are on the bottom end of the CAFE chart which is not encouraging.
Ford and GM’s position is understandable since their sales are so SUV and pick up truck centric right now however the 2025 CAFE 40mpg requirement is not that far away and they are a long way off.
FCA is in a deep bind. They need huge amounts of capital to rework their entire model range (that is why Marchionne is looking for a dance partner). FCA has had to resort to buying carbon credits to stay on the good side of the CAFE requirements.
They dont need to meet 40mpg, you should read what the CAFE standard actually is. Most people don’t understand that every manufacturer is going to have their own target to meet based on the classification of each model in their line up. The most advantageous vehicle to have in your line up is a full size truck/SUV that gets decent MPG, without looking at the exact numbers, a fuel efficient truck *I think – if i recall* helps the manufacturers target better than a vehicle like the Volt
I will have to read up on it because that sounds counterintuitive.
This really is an unfair comparison. If companies sells very little trucks, like the Japanese do, and other companies like GM and Ford sells a lot of trucks, how can they even come close to an average like those rice burners? This is a BS comparison. The media has no idea how to report facts, only opinions.