The average fuel economy of new vehicles sold last month dropped by 0.2 MPG.
University of Michigan researchers Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle attribute the change to the decreased price of gas and the increased proportion of pickup trucks, SUVs, and crossovers in the sales mix. The sales-weighted fuel economy is calculated from the monthly sales of individual models of light-duty vehicles and the combined city/highway fuel economy ratings published in the EPA Fuel Economy Guide for the respective models. The researchers classify light-duty vehicles to include cars, SUVs, vans, and pickup trucks.
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The 25.1-mpg figure is up 5.0 mpg since October 2007, the first month Sivak and Schoettle began monitoring data. It is however, down 0.4 mpg from the peak of 25.5 mpg reached in August 2014.