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Of all existing modes of transportation, onroad motor vehicles are the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and fuel usage. The Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finalized regulations in April 2010 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve fuel economy for 2012-2016 model year light-duty vehicles. In November 2010, both agencies jointly proposed the first ever greenhouse gas standards for medium- and heavy-duty trucks which are expected to take effect for model years starting in 2014. Vehicles of light-duty families are subject to mandatory testing for certification and compliance. Unlike the light-duty sector where a vast majority of vehicles are mass produced for generally similar purposes, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles are commonly custom-made.

The 4000-mile EPA fuel economy figures are presented for passenger cars from pre-emission control models through 1980, for light-trucks from 1975 through 1980, and for motorcycles for 1980. The paper accumulates most of the fuel economy analyses presented in previous papers of this kind. Accordingly, it is voluminous with data, and necessarily terse in textual material. It presupposes reader familiarity with the nature of the EPA tests and data bases, and the techniques used for the analyses, particularly harmonic sales weighting of fuel economy data. The reader must refer to precursor papers for such descriptions. Some aspects treated are: stratification by weight class, vehicle size class, manufacturer, and MPG range; domestic vs. import, gasoline vs. Diesel, and 49-states vs. California models.