Car shoppers have a new tool to compare the fuel efficiency and cost of new vehicles.
All 2013 model vehicles, which are starting to come out as early as this month, are required to have a revised fuel-economy sticker, says Bo Saulsbury, a researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which developed and maintains the fueleconomy.gov site for the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Among the information now required on car stickers:
- Comparison of energy use and cost between new-technology cars using electricity and conventional cars that are gasoline-powered.
- Estimates of how much consumers will save or spend on fuel over the next five years. For instance, a sticker for a car that gets 26 miles per gallon says the driver will save $1,850 in fuel costs over five years compared with a vehicle that get an average 22 MPG.
- Estimate of how much fuel—or in some cases, electricity—it takes to drive the vehicle 100 miles.
- Ratings of how a model compares to others for smog emissions and emissions of pollution that contribute to climate change.
Some manufacturers already have voluntarily put the label on some 2012 models. For instance, Nissan Motor does so for its Leaf electric model and General Motors has done so with the gas-powered Chevrolet Sonic car.