A U.S. Energy Information Administration report recently found that the crossover utility vehicle (CUV) share of light-duty vehicles has increased at the expense of cars, despite increases in gasoline prices over the previous two years.
In each month since September 2017, sales of CUVs have exceeded those of cars, a class that includes sedans, hatchbacks, and sports cars. CUVs are built on more fuel-efficient, car-based platforms and often have fuel economies only slightly lower than comparable cars.
The research also showed the relatively small variability in annual fuel costs has not been enough to change purchasing trends in the same way consumers exchanged low fuel economy SUVs for cars and CUVs in the peak of the recession in 2009. At that time, replacing a 20 mile-per-gallon vehicle with a 30-mpg vehicle would save an annual 250 gallons when driven 15,000 miles, at a cost savings ranging from $500 to $1,000.
Officials said as fuel economy increases, cost savings from fuel consumption reductions decrease providing as an example a consumer who drives 15,000 miles per year using a 35-mpg sedan consumes about 429 gallons of gasoline annually while a 30-mpg CUV traveling the same distance would consume 500 gallons, a difference of 71 gallons.
That difference in gasoline consumption would cost $143 to $285 annually with gasoline prices in the range of $2 to $4 per gallon.