That 55-mile-per-gallon hybrid car you've been eyeing may end up being a 44-mpg hybrid if you wait for the 2008 model.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency announced a new system Monday for evaluating fuel economy that will lower mileage estimates for most vehicles.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday December 14, 2006 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 2 inches; 90 words Type of Material: Correction
Mileage tests: A front-page article Tuesday about changes in the way the Environmental Protection Agency estimates mileage for cars and trucks cited an out-of-production vehicle, the Ford Excursion, as an example of the kind of medium-duty trucks that must begin displaying EPA mileage labels in the 2011 model year. Medium-duty trucks with loaded weight ratings of 8,500 to 10,000 pounds that currently are being sold include the Hummer H2 from General Motors and many larger pickups such as the Ford F-250 Crew Cab and the Dodge Ram 3500 Crew Cab.
On average, vehicles rated under the 2008 method will post a 12% drop in city gasoline mileage and an 8% decline in highway mileage, said Bill Wehrum, the EPA's acting assistant administrator for air and radiation.
With the new testing requirements, the EPA is attempting to come up with estimates that more closely reflect the real-world mileage motorists can expect when they purchase a vehicle.
Under the current system, which has been in effect since 1975 and was last changed in 1984, actual mileage is often far lower than the posted EPA ratings.
Hybrids will be hit harder because the new test eliminates some of the all-electric driving that helped them produce impressive results under the present system, Wehrum said.
For the first time, the EPA also will require estimated mileage to be posted on medium-duty pickup trucks, vans and sport utility vehicles -- behemoths such as the Ford Excursion that weigh between 8,500 and 10,000 pounds.
Such vehicles have been exempted from the ratings because they were considered commercial trucks. But as growing numbers of Americans adopt large SUVs and pickups as family vehicles, environmentalists and others have called on regulators to require mileage information for them as well.
Automakers won't have to publicize the big trucks' mileage estimates until the 2011 model year, however. The EPA did not explain the three-year delay but typically gives manufacturers substantial lead time when applying new regulations.
A recent study by automotive information website Edmunds.com found that the average mileage for passenger cars and light trucks was about 14% less than EPA estimates.
In part that's because the agency's current test doesn't include much stop-and-go traffic or lead-footed acceleration. Air conditioners -- notorious for lowering mileage by sucking up engine power -- aren't turned on, and all testing is done under conditions that simulate a 70-degree environment.
The new system will use more high-speed driving, partly in 20-degree cold. Air conditioning will be on some portion of each driving cycle, and there will be more stop-and-go and rapid-acceleration driving.
