The “greenest” or most efficient vehicles running about on American roadways is the compact SUV. According to new data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, compact SUVs have passed the small sedan as the greenest machine on the street.
Unsurprisingly, Tesla vehicles had the lowest carbon dioxide emissions, according to the EPA.
The revelation came in the 50th edition of the EPA’s Automotive Trends Report, which tracks a variety of data for 2023 models. Important to know, it accounts for 97% of all production vehicles in the U.S. in 2023.
Overall, new vehicles continue to become more efficient. While the average age of a vehicle on the road in the U.S. is 12 years old, real world fuel economy improved by 1.1 mpg last year to a record high of 27.1 mpg.
Big impact
If you break it down by segment, you see big improvement in one group: small SUVs (EPA classifies them as car SUVS). That group saw fuel economy rise by 7.2 mpg whereas the other groups saw gains of less than 1 mpg and minivans actually went down 0.1 mpg.
Small or car SUVs are represented by vehicles like the Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V, Ford Escape and others. While they’re not necessarily getting the best gas mileage they do enjoy the highest fuel economy because more than a third of all small or compact SUVs sold in the U.S. are EVs. Conversely, 15% of sedans are battery-electric.
Compact electric SUVs offer buyers a fantastic proposition: great fuel efficiency and more interior space than their sedan counterparts.
Cleaner machines
Not only are they better on gas, they spew less into the atmosphere, again there are more compact electric utes traversing America right now than any other class — and likely the world. The Tesla Model Y is the best-selling vehicle in the world right now. It’s the top-selling EV in the U.S. also.
The EPA studied the various classes to see which ones saw the biggest decline in carbon dioxide emissions. Again, no surprise, compact SUVs led the charge dropped 24% from 2022 to 2023. By comparison, minivans were unchanged.
Compact SUVs now emit the lowest levels of carbon dioxide on average, passing sedans: 190 grams per mile compared to 249 grams per mile. Minivans were next at 339 g/mi, midsize and large SUVs were next at 356 and pickups were last at 432.
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Industry leaders
Not surprisingly, Tesla’s got the lowest overall emissions, but the types of vehicles produced played a direct role in just how the automakers fared against one another. Mazda had the highest percentage of midsize and large SUVs at 89% of its portfolio. It sells just one sedan, the Mazda3 and one coupe, the Mazda Miata. Meanwhile, pickups accounted for 44% of Ford’s lineup and Stellantis carried the minivan market with 10%.
There wasn’t much movement from 2022 to 2023, according to the trend study, but Nissan, Tesla and Volkswagen all cut their sedan production by 10 percentage points. GM increased its pickup production by 12 percentage points.
Regardless of what vehicles were sold, Honda saw the largest increase in average carbon dioxide emissions during the past five years. Mazda was next on the list as it expanded production of SUV lineup and cut sedans, such as the Mazda6.
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