USA Banner

Official US Government Icon

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure Site Icon

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

U.S. Department of Transportation U.S. Department of Transportation Icon United States Department of Transportation United States Department of Transportation

Table 4-11: Passenger Car and Motorcycle Fuel Consumption and Travel

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Table 4-11: Passenger Car and Motorcycle Fuel Consumption and Travel

Excel | CSV

  1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 (R) 2007 2008
Vehicles registered (thousands)                                                
Passenger cars 61,671 75,258 89,244 106,706 121,601 127,885 133,700 128,300 126,581 127,327 127,883 128,387 129,728 129,749 131,839 132,432 133,621 137,633 135,921 135,670 136,431 136,568 135,400 135,933 137,080
Motorcycles 574 1,382 2,824 4,964 5,694 5,444 4,259 4,177 4,065 3,978 3,757 3,897 3,872 3,826 3,879 4,152 4,346 4,903 5,004 5,370 5,768 6,227 6,679 7,138 7,753
Vehicle-miles traveled (millions)                                                
Passenger carsa 587,000 723,000 917,000 1,034,000 1,112,000 1,247,000 1,408,000 1,358,000 1,372,000 1,375,000 1,406,000 1,438,000 1,469,854 1,502,556 1,549,577 1,569,100 1,600,287 1,628,332 1,658,474 1,672,079 1,699,890 1,708,421 1,690,534 1,672,467 1,615,850
Motorcycles U U 3,000 5,600 10,200 9,100 9,600 9,200 9,600 9,900 10,200 9,800 9,920 10,081 10,283 10,584 10,469 9,639 9,552 9,577 10,122 10,454 12,049 13,621 14,484
Fuel consumed (million gallons)                                                
Passenger carsa 41,171 49,723 67,819 74,140 69,982 71,518 69,568 64,317 65,436 67,048 67,874 68,072 69,221 69,892 71,695 73,283 73,065 73,559 75,471 75,455 75,402 77,418 75,009 74,377 71,497
Motorcycles U U 60 113 204 182 191 184 191 198 205 196 198 202 206 212 209 193 191 192 202 189 221 242 256
Average miles traveled per vehicle (thousands)                                            
Passenger carsa 9.5 9.6 10.3 9.7 9.1 9.8 10.5 10.6 10.8 10.8 11.0 11.2 11.3 11.6 11.8 11.8 12.0 11.8 12.2 12.3 12.5 12.5 12.5 12.3 11.8
Motorcycles U U 1.1 1.1 1.8 1.7 2.3 2.2 2.4 2.5 2.7 2.5 2.6 2.6 2.7 2.5 2.4 2.0 1.9 1.8 1.8 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.9
Average miles traveled per gallon                                              
Passenger carsa 14.3 14.5 13.5 13.9 15.9 17.4 20.2 21.1 21.0 20.5 20.7 21.1 21.2 21.5 21.6 21.4 21.9 22.1 22.0 22.2 22.5 22.1 22.5 22.5 22.6
Motorcycles U U 50.0 49.6 50.0 50.0 50.3 50.0 50.3 50.0 49.8 50.0 50.0 50.0 50.0 50.0 50.0 49.9 50.0 50.0 50.0 55.3 54.5 56.2 56.5
Average fuel consumed per vehicle (gallons)                                              
Passenger carsa 667.6 660.7 759.9 694.8 575.5 559.2 520.3 501.3 516.9 526.6 530.8 530.2 533.6 538.7 543.8 553.4 546.8 534.5 555.3 556.2 552.7 566.9 554.0 547.2 521.6
Motorcycles U U 21.2 22.8 35.8 33.4 44.8 44.1 47.0 49.8 54.6 50.3 51.2 52.7 53.0 51.0 48.2 39.4 38.2 35.7 35.1 30.4 33.1 33.9 33.1

KEY: R = revised; U = data are unavailable.

a 1960 and 1965 data include Motorcycles.

NOTES

See table 4-12 for other 2-axle 4-tire vehicles.

Average miles traveled per vehicle, Average miles traveled per gallon, and Average fuel consumed per vehicle are derived by calculation.

SOURCES

1960-94: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Highway Statistics Summary to 1995, FHWA-PL-97-009 (Washington, DC: July 1997), tables MV-201 and VM-201A, available at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policy/ohpi/hss/hsspubs.cfm as of Mar. 23, 2009.

1995-2008: Ibid., Highway Statistics (Washington, DC: Annual issues), table VM-1, available at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policy/ohpi/hss/hsspubs.cfm as of Apr. 26, 2010.