According to a U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Today in Energy report, new proposed fuel standards would reduce diesel consumption in medium- and heavy-duty vehicles.
The proposed Phase 2 standards, which would take effect in model year 2021 and then increase in severity through 2027, are projected to reduce diesel consumption by 0.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2040, EIA said.
The report breaks down how heavy-duty pickups and vans, vocational vehicles, and combination tractors will be affected by the new standards. It goes on to say that by 2040 the average fuel economy of all medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, which accounted for nearly 20% of U.S. transportation energy consumption in 2015, would reach 10.6 miles per gallon equivalent, representing a 33% improvement.
“Small changes in fuel economy measured in terms of miles per gallon at the lower end of the range can have outsized effects,” EIA said. “For instance, switching from an 8-mpg vehicle to a 10-mpg vehicle provides a fuel consumption savings of 0.025 gallons per mile of travel – the difference between 0.125 gallons used to travel a mile in the 8-mpg vehicle and 0.1 gallons used by the 10-mpg vehicle to travel the same distance … This illustrates how seemingly small changes in fuel economy for larger trucks can save a significant amount of fuel.”
