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Working Truck Fuel Economy: The Facts

Off-the-Shelf: Improving Vehicles

There are many technologies available to cost-effectively improve the fuel economy of sport-utility vehicles (SUVs), pickups, and minivans—whether used for hauling, off-road travel, or the trip to the supermarket.  Because these technologies have been left on the shelf for so long, there is an even greater potential to improve the fuel economy of light trucks compared to cars.

Improving Light Truck Fuel Economy:
UCS has investigated the best ways to increase the fuel economy of SUVs, pickups and minivans. In each case, vehicle fuel economy potential was evaluated while providing the same performance, comfort and safety that consumers have today. We found that several packages of cost-effective technologies can be employed to save consumers money and increase fuel economy while giving consumers the performance and features they expect today.

Near-Term Gains. Using technologies available on today's cars, the average fuel economy of SUVs, pickups, and minivans could easily be increased to 28 miles per gallon (mpg) while maintaining acceleration, towing capacity, and comfort along with improved safety. That would put light trucks above today's car fuel economy standard for about $720.1   These vehicles would save consumers more than $3,300 at the gas pump over their lifetimes compared to vehicles meeting the current standard of 21.0 mpg—these savings are more than four times the cost of the fuel economy improvements.2   In other words, for less than the cost of air conditioning (or a 6-disk CD sound system), we could save consumers thousands of dollars while closing the light truck loophole that allows the average light truck to guzzle nearly 40 percent more fuel than the average car.

Ten Years Away. If a more significant investment, around $2,300, is made to increase the fuel economy of our SUVs, pickups, and minivans, their average fuel economy could reach 36 mpg using technologies that could be in mass production within the next ten years. Consumers would see benefits of nearly $5,700 in savings at the gasoline pump during the vehicle's lifetime.

Safety Benefits:
Most of the near-term improvements in the fuel economy of light trucks can be accomplished through optimizing transmissions and other engine improvements with no impact on vehicle safety. Further fuel economy gains can be made with additional technology that can improve both safety and fuel economy.  This can be done through reducing the weight of light trucks using materials like high strength steel and aluminum and unibody construction—this means that SUVs can be just as large as they are today, but will be safer for the driver. Because light trucks pose a substantial risk to other vehicles on the road due to their mass and design, making them lighter will also save the lives of others on the road.

Great Potential for Pickup Trucks:
Pickup trucks represent one-third of the light truck market and must be improved if we are to truly address the global warming and energy security problems of booming sales of low fuel economy vehicles and if consumers are to reap the fuel saving benefits of efficiency technology. Questions have been raised about the potential for these vehicles to meet higher fuel economy levels. While it is true that pickup trucks do have a greater technical hurdle given the payload and towing capacities that are required for some applications, the broad range of technologies that exist to improve other light trucks can also increase pickup truck fuel economy significantly. In the end, pickup trucks may not be able to reach the same fuel economy levels as SUVs or minivans, but the significant improvements that are possible will help pickup owners save money, helping, not harming businesses, farmers, rural residents and others who purchase these vehicles.
 
Fuel Efficient Pickups. Farmers, rural residents and businesses can be confident that using existing and emerging technologies, pickup truck fuel economy could reach at least 26 mpg using on the road technology and more than 33 mpg over the next 10 years. These levels of fuel economy improvements can save pickup drivers $3,200 to more than $5,600 at the gasoline pump, double or triple the cost of the fuel economy improvements.

Efficiency with Power. High-efficiency engines do not have to be low-power engines; pickups and other light trucks that achieve over 30 mpg can perform at least as well as those on the road today. One key to maintaining towing performance and acceleration is the use of  variable valve engines that are both more efficient and more powerful than most engines in trucks today. Also, using cylinder shut-off means you can have a powerful 8-cylinder engine when you need high torque and power, and an efficient 4-cylinder engine when half of the cylinders are shut off at low power to save fuel. Automakers have traditionally met fuel economy standards without sacrificing power. In fact, light truck horsepower has increased 50% over the past decade while fuel economy has remained relatively constant.

The Law of Averages. In today's car and truck market, automakers meet the CAFE average requirement by selling a mix of vehicles with varying levels of fuel economy—including some models that are well below the standard. Technological improvements can increase fuel economy across the board, allowing automakers to continue selling a broad array of vehicles to meet consumer needs while meeting higher standards overall.

Notes
[1] Derived from light truck averages based on results in The Diesel Dilemma and year 2000. 
[2] Based on an average 15-year life with first year mileage of 15,600 miles, declining at 4.5% per year, and a gasoline price of $1.90 per gallon.