City vs highway MPG

A conventional gasoline version's EPA city rating is typically about a quarter below its highway rating: the median city-to-highway ratio is 0.735, so a car rated 40 MPG on the highway is rated about 29 in the city. Hybrids narrow the gap to a ratio of 0.848, and in 24.6% of hybrid versions the city rating is the higher one. Electric versions turn it around: 82% of them rate higher in the city.

Almost always lower in the city

For fuel-burning versions the city rating is nearly always the lower of the two: among gasoline versions the city rating was higher than the highway rating in 0.0% of cases after rounding, and among diesels in 0.1%. Counts on this page are of versions or nameplates EPA rated, not of vehicles sold, so nothing here is weighted by sales.

Powertrain	Median city ÷ highway	City rated higher
Gasoline	0.735	0.0%
Flex-fuel	0.720	0.0%
Diesel	0.773	0.1%
Hybrid	0.848	24.6%
Plug-in hybrid	0.901	22.2%

Hybrids and plug-in hybrids

For hybrids the median ratio rises to 0.848, and about one hybrid version in four, 24.6%, has a city rating above its highway rating. Plug-in hybrids, counted here on their gasoline-only ratings, reach a median of 0.901, with 22.2% rated higher in the city.

These ratios rest on very different numbers of versions: 43,110 gasoline versions, 1,789 hybrid, 1,233 diesel, 1,531 flex-fuel and 442 plug-in hybrid versions, so the gasoline figure is the firmest and the plug-in hybrid figure the least firm. Across all fuel-burning versions, the city and highway ratings are exactly equal in 0.4% of cases.

Diesel and flex-fuel versions

Diesel versions sit between gasoline and hybrids, with a median ratio of 0.773; their city rating was above the highway rating in 0.1% of versions. Flex-fuel versions, rated here on gasoline, show the widest gap of all powertrains, a median of 0.720, and none of them rated higher in the city.

Electric versions

Across 1,434 electric versions the median city-to-highway ratio is 1.124, the reverse of every fuel-burning powertrain, and 82% of electric versions have a higher city MPGe than highway MPGe.

By vehicle family

Among gasoline versions the gap differs by family, though less than between powertrains: every family's median ratio lies between 0.708 and 0.789. Minivans show the lowest median ratio, 0.708, a city rating about 29% below the highway rating; special purpose vehicles show the highest, 0.789. Cars sit just above minivans at 0.711, and pickups toward the top of the range at 0.769.

Family (gasoline)	Median city ÷ highway	City below highway
Minivans	0.708	29%
Cars	0.711	29%
Station wagons	0.739	26%
SUVs	0.750	25%
Vans	0.765	24%
Pickups	0.769	23%
Special purpose vehicles	0.789	21%

Over time

Gasoline versions	Versions	Median city ÷ highway	City rated higher
1984–1999	17,029	0.750	0.0%
2000–2009	9,926	0.720	0.0%
2010–2019	10,262	0.720	0.0%
2020–2026	5,893	0.743	0.1%

For gasoline versions the ratio has stayed between 0.72 and 0.75 in every period since 1984. For model year 2026 the median gasoline version is rated 19 MPG in the city and 25 on the highway, across 559 versions.

Hybrid versions	Versions	Median city ÷ highway	City rated higher
2000–2009	125	0.929	36.0%
2010–2019	467	0.926	35.5%
2020–2026	1,197	0.792	19.1%

The hybrid ratio fell. In 2000–2009 their median ratio was 0.929 and 36.0% rated higher in the city; in 2020–2026 the ratio is 0.792 and the share 19.1%. Over the same years the number of hybrid versions grew from 125 to 1,197, and EPA's hybrid flag came to include mild hybrids.

A note on rounding

EPA rounds the city and highway ratings separately to whole numbers. For a version rated near 20 MPG, one MPG of rounding is five percent of the rating, so small differences in the ratio should not be read too closely. A single version's ratio is therefore less precise than the medians above, which are computed over thousands of versions. The ratio also says nothing about how a given driver splits city and highway miles, which is what the calculator's city slider is for.

What it means for your own driving

EPA's combined rating weights city driving at 55% and highway at 45%. Take the 2015 Toyota Camry with the 2.5-liter engine, rated 25 MPG city and 34 highway, 28 combined. At 15,000 miles a year the combined label gives 535.7 gallons. With 80% city driving the two labels weighted by that share give 568.2 gallons, and with 20% city driving 472.9 gallons. The spread between those two cases, 95.3 gallons, comes entirely from the gap between the city and highway labels. If your driving is mostly in town, the city rating says more about you than the combined one; if it is mostly highway, the reverse. The gallons calculator has a city-share slider that weights the two labels by your own split. Model pages list best city and highway ratings for each year, for example the Toyota Prius.