EPA lowers fuel economy expectations for future

The Environmental Protection Agency is lowering its expectations for car fuel economy.

The agency predicted U.S vehicles would be getting more than 54-miles per gallon by 2025.

But the agency now says it expects that number to be between 50 and 53 mpg by 2025.

Officials said the lower numbers will hold… As long as gas prices keep going up.

Lower gas prices mean that more Americans will purchase SUVs, which means a steadily lower mpg rate than what was previously predicted.

Consumers shouldn’t expect to get such good gas mileage in real life, though.

The fuel economy policy is part of the Corporate Average Fuel Economy program, which is regulated by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the EPA.

The fuel economy estimates used for CAFE regulations are different from the numbers seen on the window stickers at dealers.

According to CNN, CAFE fuel economy numbers are used only for regulatory purposes, and are usually about 20 percent higher than more realistic numbers. So a CAFE fuel economy figure of 52.6 mpg translates to about 42 mpg on the road.