Reviewing EPA’s FuelEconomy.Gov Plug-In Emissions

Several of the white papers on this website have analyzed electric car fuel economy information on car window stickers. These papers have noted that important information is missing from the window sticker. For some time I have been following the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fueleconomy.gov website waiting for promised new functionality to make comparing vehicle MPG and CO₂ emissions easier. I was very interested in this new information since the past data provided by the EPA, the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) was sometimes inaccurate and often incomplete. The new functions on fueleconomy.gov are now available and I have used them to compare 2012 models of the Toyota Prius, the Chevrolet Volt, and the Nissan Leaf. I assumed I could now get an “apples to apples” comparison and settle some long-standing doubts about the accuracy of Miles per Gallon equivalent (MPGe) and CO₂ grams per mile for plug-in cars.