The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released its fuel-economy ratings for 2003 model-year vehicles.
Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE ) for 2003 model cars and
passenger trucks dropped from 21 mpg in 2002 to 20.8 mpg in 2003. The
2003 figure is 6 percent lower than the peak average fuel economy of
22.1 mpg attained 15 years ago.
Among the 488 models of passenger cars that were tested by the
EPA, the average mpg attained was 23.6, down from 23.9 in 2002.
For the 446 sport-utility vehicles, vans and pickup trucks tested, the average mpg was 17.6, down from 17.9 in 2002.