New Car Fuel Economy Reaches All-Time High

New cars leaving dealership lots last month helped push average fuel economy in the U.S. to an all-time high.

According to a study by University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute, the average sales-weighted fuel-economy rating for August was 25.8, up from 25.6 in July. The research, which is conducted by Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle, calculates from the monthly sales of individual models of light-duty vehicles and the combined city/highway ratings published in the EPA Fuel Economy Guide.

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In August 2013, the average sales-weighted fuel-economy rating was 24.9 and the average stated fuel economy has increased 5.7 MPG since the researchers began monitoring the data.

In addition, June’s average greenhouse gas emissions of each new-vehicle driver in the country dropped to 0.78, tying the record low and is down from 0.79 in May. June is the most recent month that data is available for the greenhouse gas emissions study.