IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v37y2009i8p3168-3170.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fuel efficiency of vehicles on US roads: 1923-2006

Author

Listed:
  • Sivak, Michael
  • Tsimhoni, Omer

Abstract

This article documents and analyzes the changes in fuel efficiency of vehicles on US roads between 1923 and 2006. Information about distances driven and fuel consumed was used to calculate the on-the-road fuel efficiency of the overall fleet and of different classes of vehicles. The overall fleet fuel efficiency decreased from 14Â mpg in 1923 to 11.9Â mpg in 1973. Starting in 1974, efficiency increased rapidly to 16.9Â mpg in 1991. Thereafter, improvements have been small, with efficiency reaching 17.2Â mpg in 2006. The information for 2006 was used to calculate the fuel-efficiency improvements in different classes of vehicles that would be needed to achieve a given percentage reduction in the total amount of fuel consumed by all vehicles.

Suggested Citation

  • Sivak, Michael & Tsimhoni, Omer, 2009. "Fuel efficiency of vehicles on US roads: 1923-2006," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 3168-3170, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:37:y:2009:i:8:p:3168-3170
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301-4215(09)00227-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kenneth A. Small & Kurt Van Dender, 2007. "Fuel Efficiency and Motor Vehicle Travel: The Declining Rebound Effect," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1), pages 25-52.
    2. Robert B. Noland, 2004. "Motor Vehicle Fuel Efficiency and Traffic Fatalities," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4), pages 1-22.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mofolasayo Adekunle, 2024. "Managing Traffic Congestion Pricing, the Associated Equity Issues, and Establishment of Sustainable Funding for Transportation Infrastructures," Logistics, Supply Chain, Sustainability and Global Challenges, Sciendo, vol. 15(2), pages 25-56.
    2. Sivak, Michael & Schoettle, Brandon, 2012. "Eco-driving: Strategic, tactical, and operational decisions of the driver that influence vehicle fuel economy," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 96-99.
    3. Yizao Liu, 2010. "Gasoline Prices, Fuel Economy Efficiency And Automobile Replacement Dynamics," Working Papers 02, University of Connecticut, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Charles J. Zwick Center for Food and Resource Policy.
    4. Fonseca, Camila & Jiang, Haiyue & Zeerak, Raihana & Zhao, Jerry Zhirong, 2024. "Explaining the adoption of electric vehicle fees across the United States," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 139-149.
    5. Winebrake, James J. & Green, Erin H. & Comer, Bryan & Corbett, James J. & Froman, Sarah, 2012. "Estimating the direct rebound effect for on-road freight transportation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 252-259.
    6. Liu, Yizao, 2010. "Gasoline Prices, Fuel Economy Efficiency And Automobile Replacement Dynamics," Working Paper series 148290, University of Connecticut, Charles J. Zwick Center for Food and Resource Policy.
    7. Shekarchian, M. & Moghavvemi, M. & Zarifi, F. & Moghavvemi, S. & Motasemi, F. & Mahlia, T.M.I., 2017. "Impact of infrastructural policies to reduce travel time expenditure of car users with significant reductions in energy consumption," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 327-335.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ian W. H. Parry & Margaret Walls & Winston Harrington, 2007. "Automobile Externalities and Policies," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 45(2), pages 373-399, June.
    2. Antonio Bento & Kenneth Gillingham & Kevin Roth, 2017. "The Effect of Fuel Economy Standards on Vehicle Weight Dispersion and Accident Fatalities," NBER Working Papers 23340, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Sheldon, Tamara L. & Dua, Rubal, 2018. "Gasoline savings from clean vehicle adoption," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 418-424.
    4. Jinwon Kim & Jucheol Moon & Dongyun Yang, 2024. "Pigouvian Congestion Tolls and the Welfare Gain: Estimates for California Freeways," Working Papers 2402, Nam Duck-Woo Economic Research Institute, Sogang University (Former Research Institute for Market Economy).
    5. De Borger, Bruno & Mulalic, Ismir & Rouwendal, Jan, 2016. "Measuring the rebound effect with micro data: A first difference approach," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1-17.
    6. Sentenac-Chemin, Elodie, 2012. "Is the price effect on fuel consumption symmetric? Some evidence from an empirical study," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 59-65.
    7. Biying Yu & Junyi Zhang & Akimasa Fujiwara, 2016. "Who rebounds in the private transport sector? A comparative analysis between Beijing and Tokyo," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 43(3), pages 561-579, May.
    8. Karen Turner, 2013. ""Rebound" Effects from Increased Energy Efficiency: A Time to Pause and Reflect," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    9. Zolnik, Edmund J., 2012. "Estimates of statewide and nationwide carbon dioxide emission reductions and their costs from Cash for Clunkers," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 271-281.
    10. Chitnis, Mona & Sorrell, Steve, 2015. "Living up to expectations: Estimating direct and indirect rebound effects for UK households," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(S1), pages 100-116.
    11. Burke, Paul J. & Batsuuri, Tsendsuren & Yudhistira, Muhammad Halley, 2017. "Easing the traffic: The effects of Indonesia’s fuel subsidy reforms on toll-road travel," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 167-180.
    12. Yuliya Lovcha & Alejandro Perez-Laborda, 2017. "Structural shocks and dynamic elasticities in a long memory model of the US gasoline retail market," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 405-422, September.
    13. González, Rosa Marina & Marrero, Gustavo A. & Rodríguez-López, Jesús & Marrero, Ángel S., 2019. "Analyzing CO2 emissions from passenger cars in Europe: A dynamic panel data approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 1271-1281.
    14. Qing Su, 2017. "Travel Demand Management Policy Instruments, Urban Spatial Characteristics, and Household Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Travel in the US Urban Areas," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 7(3), pages 157-166.
    15. Orea, Luis & Llorca, Manuel & Filippini, Massimo, 2015. "A new approach to measuring the rebound effect associated to energy efficiency improvements: An application to the US residential energy demand," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 599-609.
    16. Marlon G. Boarnet & Xize Wang & Douglas Houston, 2022. "Can New Light Rail Reduce Personal Vehicle Carbon Emissions? A Before-After, Experimental-Control Evaluation in Los Angeles," Papers 2206.12610, arXiv.org.
    17. Kilian, Lutz & Zhou, Xiaoqing, 2024. "Heterogeneity in the pass-through from oil to gasoline prices: A new instrument for estimating the price elasticity of gasoline demand," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    18. Adamos Adamou & Sofronis Clerides & Theodoros Zachariadis, 2012. "Assessment of CO2-Oriented Vehicle Tax Reforms: A Case Study of Greece," University of Cyprus Working Papers in Economics 04-2012, University of Cyprus Department of Economics.
    19. Donna, Javier D., 2018. "Measuring Long-Run Price Elasticities in Urban Travel Demand," MPRA Paper 90059, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Chao Wei & Shanjun Li, 2014. "The Cost of Greening Stimulus: A Dynamic Discrete Choice Analysis of Vehicle Scrappage Programs," Working Papers 2014-12, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:37:y:2009:i:8:p:3168-3170. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.