Average Annual Fuel Use by Vehicle Type

Transit Bus Class 8 Truck Refuse Truck Demand Response Delivery Truck School Bus Light Truck/Van Car Motorcycle
Annual Fuel Use (GGE) 9605.263157894737 10745.47151548672 10089 4157 1765.170670037927 2122.567577343204 635.8426966292135 433.3196721311476 45.56818181818182
Source:
This chart shows average annual fuel use (per vehicle) for major vehicle categories in the United States. The metric used is gasoline gallon equivalents (GGEs), representing a quantity of fuel with the same amount of energy contained in a gallon of gasoline. The two factors affecting the average annual fuel use of a vehicle are the average miles traveled per year (correlative) and the fuel economy of the vehicle (inversely correlative). Transit buses, which are relatively inefficient because of their stop-and-go drive cycles and heavy loads, consume more fuel on average than any other vehicle type. Class 8 trucks, which typically travel long distances carrying heavy loads, use the second-largest amount of fuel. Refuse trucks, like transit buses, are inefficient because of their heavy loads and stop-and-go drive cycles. The last three vehicle types are owned by individual consumers, and they each use a fraction of the fuel consumed by fleet-based vehicles, on a per-vehicle basis. See also Average Annual Vehicle Miles Traveled by Major Vehicle Category and Average Fuel Economy by Major Vehicle Category.

To view more details, notes, and acronyms, please download the Excel spreadsheet.