94% of would-be car buyers say fuel economy matters, a Consumer Reports survey found

Ninety-four percent of Americans who expect to buy or lease a vehicle call fuel economy at least somewhat important, and 68 percent rate it very or extremely important. Those are the lead results of a Consumer Reports survey of 2,124 U.S. adults fielded in July 2026 and announced on Oct. 2. The group says the readings match its 2022 and 2024 driver surveys, so the priority has not moved even as the federal rulebook around it has.

The timing makes the finding more pointed than a routine preference poll. Washington finalized a new round of fuel economy standards within days of the release, and pump prices have climbed to a level that gives the question a household price tag rather than a theoretical one.

The 94 percent and the 68 percent beneath it

Consumer Reports built the sample as nationally representative and then filtered to prospective buyers, meaning respondents who expect to buy or lease a vehicle. Within that group, 94 percent put fuel economy at “at least somewhat important,” the survey’s broadest affirmative bracket. The tighter measure is the 68 percent who chose “very” or “extremely” important, which is the figure that separates a tiebreaker from a deciding factor.

The distinction matters when reading the 94 percent. A 94 percent reading in a four- or five-point scale mostly says almost nobody dismisses efficiency outright; the 68 percent says roughly two in three shoppers would let it steer the purchase.

Chris Harto, Consumer Reports’ manager of energy impact, framed the result as continuity. Consumers have long said that fuel economy is important to them, he said in the group’s release, and the 2022 and 2024 surveys of drivers returned similar readings, according to Consumer Reports’ own announcement.

SAFE Vehicles Rule III and the weaker federal target

The same release was written against the backdrop of a final rule from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The agency’s SAFE Vehicles Rule III, published in the Federal Register on Sept. 30 and effective Nov. 30, recalibrates the Corporate Average Fuel Economy program for model years 2022 through 2031, split into a 2022-2026 period and a 2027-2031 period. It also rewrites compliance pathways, including how vehicles are classified.

The pace of the mandated gains is slow. In its summary of the final rule, DieselNet reports annual increases from the model year 2022 baseline of 0.90 percent for passenger cars through model year 2029 and 0.51 percent for non-passenger vehicles, rising to 1 percent a year for both through 2031, with a fleetwide estimate of roughly 34.9 mpg in model year 2031. The rule also ends CAFE credit trading and certain air-conditioning and off-cycle adjustments starting with model year 2028.

Harto tied the survey to that policy directly. Whether automakers keep offering more hybrids, he said, depends on whether they keep responding to consumer demand “or if momentum slows in the face of weak and toothless efficiency standards.” Consumer Reports, an advocacy-minded nonprofit, is characterizing the rule there; the rule’s own text describes it as a recalibration to a “maximum feasible” level.

Gasoline at $4.354 and what each mile costs

The federal Energy Information Administration put the U.S. regular gasoline price at $4.354 a gallon for the week of Oct. 5, a rise of $1.230 from a year earlier. The EIA’s Today in Energy series attributes the elevated pump prices to tight global gasoline supplies and higher crude oil prices, noting New York Harbor gasoline crack spreads have averaged about $1 a gallon above 2025 levels since May.

At that price, efficiency is a recurring bill. The fueleconomy.gov savings page calculates that a 30 mpg vehicle costs about $925 less to fuel each year than a 20 mpg one, assuming 15,000 miles and $3.70 a gallon. Redoing that arithmetic at $4.354 puts the gap near $1,090 a year, since the 20 mpg car burns 750 gallons and the 30 mpg car 500.

Hybrids as the answer Consumer Reports points to

The survey did not stop at fuel economy. On electric vehicles, Consumer Reports found that 25 percent of prospective buyers would definitely or seriously consider one, and only 11 percent had driven an electric-only vehicle in the past year. Among those who had, 68 percent would consider an EV; among those who had not, 20 percent would. With limited hands-on experience and persistent worries about charging, range and cost, the organization advises that fuel-efficient hybrids can be good options for many drivers.

That recommendation puts the 94 percent into practical terms. Buyers who rank mileage this highly but are not ready to plug in have a narrower path, and Harto’s argument is that the path stays open only if the pressure on automakers does. The survey does not report how many respondents ultimately bought what they said they wanted, so the gap between stated priority and actual purchase remains unmeasured in this release.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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