Another surprise: Average fuel economy rises in July

Another surprise: Average fuel economy rises in July

The average fuel economy of new vehicles sold in the U.S. in July was 25.4 mpg, up 0.3 mpg from June, according to the University of Michigan.

The increase likely reflects the decreased proportion of light trucks in the sales mix in July compared with June, the researchers said. The value for July is up 5.3 mpg since October 2007 (when the monitoring began), but still down 0.1 mpg from the peak of 25.5 mpg reached in August 2014.

The University of Michigan Eco-Driving Index (EDI), which estimates the average monthly emissions of greenhouse gases generated by an individual U.S. driver, improved to 0.82 in May, down from 0.84 in April (the lower the value the better). The index shows that the average new-vehicle driver produced 18 percent lower emissions in May 2017 than in October 2007, but 4 percent higher emissions than the record low reached in November 2013.

The EDI takes into account both vehicle fuel economy and distance driven.