Fuel economy for 2008 may set 15-year high

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. - US average fuel economy for 2008 model autos may be the best since 1993 as consumers buy fewer light trucks and manufacturers build more-efficient vehicles.

The projected rate of 20.8 miles per gallon is 0.2 mpg better than in 2007, the Environmental Protection Agency said yesterday. The figures, intended to reflect real-world driving, differ from Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules automakers must meet.

Buyers' switch to cars instead of trucks is being driven by gasoline prices that reached a record $4.11 a gallon in July. Cars accounted for 52 percent of US new-vehicle sales through August, compared with 47 percent a year earlier, according to Autodata Corp. in Woodcliff Lake, N.J.

"It is extremely likely that the projected fleetwide average" for 2008 is too low, the EPA said. "This value is based on . . . projections made by automakers at a time when gasoline prices were considerably lower."

Light trucks' efficiency has improved 1.4 mpg since 2004, while cars have gained 1 mpg, the EPA said.

Manufacturers are working to meet the so-called CAFE standards for their combined car-and-truck fleets of an average 35 mpg by 2020, with incremental increases leading to that level.

Those rules, governed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, are less rigorous than those used by the EPA, according to a statement from the Union of Concerned Scientists. For the 2008 model year, the CAFE standards are 27.5 mpg for cars and 22.5 mpg for light trucks.