About the data

About the data

Every number on this site comes from one file: EPA's fuel economy ratings as published by the U.S. Department of Energy on FuelEconomy.gov (vehicles.csv), downloaded on October 28, 2026. This page explains what the numbers measure, how the site groups and ranks them, and where their limits are.

How to read a model page

The chart at the top of every model page has one column per model year. The grey bar runs from the least to the most efficient version EPA rated under the name that year; the dot sits on the best one, in orange, or in green when that best version is a hybrid. The dashed line behind the bars is the median best rating of all nameplates in the same EPA size class that year. A black vertical line marks a year in which most of the engines EPA listed for the name were new compared with the year before.

Under the chart, the opening text names the nameplate's strongest facts: places at the top or bottom of its class, records within its vehicle family, firsts, and long runs. Lower down, a dot chart shows every nameplate of its class in its latest year; "five years at a time" shows where its average rating placed in each five-year span; the full year table lists the best and lowest version of every year.

What the ratings are

MPG is EPA's combined, city and highway estimate in miles per US gallon, as printed on the window label. Values for model years 1984–2007 are EPA's revised estimates on the test method introduced for 2008, so the whole series is on one scale. They are laboratory-based estimates; real consumption varies with driving, weather, load and upkeep, and nothing here measures it.

Electric versions are rated in MPGe and in kilowatt-hours per 100 miles. One gallon of gasoline counts as 33.705 kWh. Electric ratings are only ever compared with other electric ratings, never with MPG.

Plug-in hybrids are counted in MPG with their gasoline-only rating. Hybrid means EPA's own hybrid flag, which includes mild hybrids and performance hybrids. Hydrogen fuel-cell and dedicated natural-gas versions appear only as powertrain facts; their ratings cannot be turned into gallons of gasoline.

Nameplates, versions and the best version

A nameplate is a make plus EPA's base model name, followed across all its model years. A version is one row in EPA's list: one engine, transmission and drive combination. The best version of a nameplate in a year is its highest combined rating among gasoline, diesel, hybrid, flex-fuel (gasoline value) and plug-in hybrid (gasoline-only) versions.

When EPA renamed one continuous model, the names share one page and the page states both names and years (for example the Mazda MX-5 Miata, listed as MX-5 Miata until 2005 and as MX-5 since 2006). Badge twins that carried the same ratings year after year, such as the Mercury Topaz and the Ford Tempo, are covered on the page of the twin with more years; body styles EPA lists under a separate name are covered on the main name's page.

How ranks and records are worked out

Class ranks compare nameplates EPA rated in the same model year and the same EPA size class, using each nameplate's best version in that class; 2WD and 4WD variants of a truck class count as one class. A rank is only reported when at least ten nameplates were rated in that class and year and their ratings differ. Ties are stated as ties. Ranks never compare across years, so the changes EPA made to class definitions (SUVs split into small and standard for 2013; truck and van weight limits in 2008 and 2011) do not mix.

Five years at a time averages a nameplate's best-version rating over the years of a five-year span in which it was rated at least three times in the class it sat in most often, and places that average among all nameplates with at least three rated years in the same class and span (at least ten of them).

Family records compare a nameplate with all nameplates of its vehicle family on this site (cars, station wagons, SUVs, pickups, minivans, vans, special purpose vehicles), whichever family most of its versions belong to. Records such as the highest peak, the largest gain from first to latest year, or the biggest one-year rise are reported for the top five. Gains and declines are only computed for nameplates rated for eight or more years.

Longest-running in its class is reported only when a nameplate has more rated years in one EPA size class than any other nameplate, without a tie, in a class that has held at least 30 names.

Early powertrains are reported when a nameplate's first hybrid, diesel, electric or other non-gasoline version came in a year when no more than one in ten active nameplates of its family offered one, or when it was among the first three nameplates of its family to have one at all.

Engine-list turnover marks a model year in which the set of engines (displacement, cylinders and fuel) EPA listed for a name shares no more than a third with the previous year's set. It is a sign of a redesign, but EPA data does not name generations, and neither does this site.

What the numbers do not say

Counts are of nameplates and versions EPA rated, not of vehicles sold. A median of versions weighs a model with ten engines ten times as much as a model with one. Nothing on this site is weighted by sales, and "highest rated" always means highest among the nameplates EPA rated in that class and year. No page gives prices, fuel costs or buying advice.

Model year 2027

EPA releases ratings for a model year over many months. Model year 2027 was incomplete on October 28, 2026, so it appears only in the gallons calculator, marked as partial, and is left out of every chart, rank, record and list. Model year 2026 may still receive late additions.

Cleaning

Of 50,407 rows in the source file, 50,200 remain after cleaning: rows with impossible or inconsistent values were dropped, duplicate rows that differ only in emission records were merged, and make names that EPA spells two ways were joined. That leaves 1,567 EPA names, which this site treats as 1,551 nameplates after joining renamed models and leaving out names rated only for 2027; 359 of them have a page of their own, chosen for data that says something no other nameplate's does. The rest appear on their make's page and in the calculator.

Source and licence

Fuel economy ratings: U.S. EPA and U.S. DOE, FuelEconomy.gov data. Not endorsed by EPA or DOE. Retrieved October 28, 2026. EPA states that data it produces is in the public domain (17 U.S.C. § 105). This site uses only the rating values and names from the file; it does not reuse text, images, logos or photographs from FuelEconomy.gov, and it is not affiliated with EPA, DOE or Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which runs FuelEconomy.gov.