MPGs. What happened?

[bluedigger]

8. Getting better all the time.

U.S. Fuel Economy Is at All-Time High, Researchers Say
By JIM MOTAVALLI
University of Michigan researchers said Monday that new cars and light trucks sold in the United States in October had the highest average fuel economy ever recorded on American vehicles — 24.1 mpg combined.

Michael Sivak, one of the researchers, said in a telephone interview that new vehicle sales showed a four mile-per-gallon gain from October 2007 to October 2012, an improvement of about 20 percent.

Mr. Sivak and his colleague at Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute, Brandon Schoettle, have tracked data from 1923 to show a largely stagnant fuel economy trend from that time until about 1973, when the Arab oil embargo caused gasoline shortages. That data was published last July in the journal Transport Policy. “Technology improvements were used to add power and acceleration for 50 years, and it’s only after that time that we see sharp increases in fuel economy,” Mr. Sivak said. The average on-road fuel economy of all vehicles in 1923 was 14 m.p.g., the report said, compared with 17.4 m.p.g. as recently as 2008.

Historical fuel economy figures were attained by dividing the amount of fuel used for road transportation by vehicle miles traveled. More recent mileage information comes from Environmental Protection Agency data as used on window stickers.
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/06/u-s-fuel-economy-is-at-all-time-high-researchers-say/