It appears that theUSis finally getting a grip on vehicle emissions after the most recent value of theUniversityofMichigan Transportation ResearchInstitute was rated at 0.86 – that’s a 14 per cent reduction of emissions per driver of newly purchased vehicles compared to October, 2007.
According to the figures for April, the index values for fuel economy and distance driven stand at 0.88 and 0.98 respectively – this suggests the decrease in emissions comes despite only a slight reduction in vehicle kilometres travelled.
The idea behind the scale is to estimate the average monthly impact on the environment by individualUSdrivers who purchase vehicles that month. It estimates the amount by taking into account the fuel economy of the vehicle and the distance driven. They are always shown relative to October 2007 as this was the nominal start of the 2008 model year when the EPA first started using the current fuel economy rating system.
The fuel economy rating is calculated as an inverse of the sales-weighted, average fuel economy of purchased new vehicles for each month; while the distance driven starts with estimates of the total distance driven in theUSfor each month as released by the Federal Highway Administration.
