Sustainable Transportation – Personal – 4.6 tons per car

While public transport is generally sustainable transportation, sometimes it is just not going where you are going. So we look at the efficiency of personal transportation methods, such as different types of cars, trucks and motorcycles. There is also a link to truly sustainable transportation: electric vehicles: cars and e-bikes.

The average U.S. vehicle gets 22.2 miles per gallon and drives 11,500 miles per year, creating 4.6 metric tons of greenhouse gases per year (EPA, 2025). In contrast, the U.S. Federal Highway Administration (2024) measures highway driving at 24.6 miles per gallon, driving 9,933 miles per year, creating just over 3 tons (3054 kg) of greenhouse gases per year. Can you beat that? Calculate your greenhouse gases using our spreadsheet: Calculate Your Footprint.

My Story

I have driven two hybrid cars, getting 40-55 miles per gallon (mpg) on my first Honda Civic Hybrid and 50-65 mpg on my subsequent Hyundai Ioniq. This mpg range occurs because hybrids tend to get better gas mileage in the summer versus Chicago’s winter, by about 10 mpg. This may be attributed to antifreeze in the winter gas blend and a colder battery not performing quite as well. For both my cars, highway and city driving tend to perform similarly in mpg.

With my Ioniq, I can travel from Chicago to NY state on a single 11-gallon tank of gas. We have no driveway at our Chicago home to charge an electric vehicle. So I have asked my town if they could install an electric charger near my home, and fortunately, they have one planned.

Your Choices

This section shows the average greenhouse gases emitted by motorized conventional and hybrid trucks, cars, and motorcycles, with their average annual fuel costs.  The first table provides summary climate change impact when driving various types of vehicles. For comparison purposes, all vehicles are assumed to travel 10,000 miles/year (=16,093 km/year), although the actual average annual car mileage in the U.S. is 11,500 miles (EPA, 2025).  Later tables/graphs and equations help you determine your actual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as well as annual fuel costs.  These can be useful when purchasing a new vehicle to learn its impact on the environment and your finances.

Action Choices and Links	Content
Learn Your Current Greenhouse Gas Impact	Gives greenhouse gas tons assuming you drive 10,000 miles/year for various modes of personal transportation.
Calculate Your Current and Potential Future Greenhouse Gas Impact	Table enables you to calculate your greenhouse gases for average miles per gallon and annual distance driven
Drive an Electric Vehicle (Car or E-bike)	Introduces benefits of electric cars and describes charging techniques. Describes benefits and types of e-bikes.
Reduce Future Fuel Costs	Table enables you to calculate your annual fuel costs for average miles per gallon and annual distance driven
Eco-Friendly Public Transportation	Discusses trains, planes and other public transport
Other Eco-Friendly Choices	Parent link: Eco-Friendly living guide for energy efficiency, diet, gardening.

Investigate Your Current Greenhouse Gas Impact

Units and Abbreviations: GHG=greenhouse gas; mpg=miles per gallon; tons=metric tons; cc=cubic centimeters.

Mode of Transportation and Link	Climate Change Impact (all assume 10,000 miles/year)	Clarifications and Notes
Truck	Heavy-duty truck/bus (7 mpg assumes diesel): 14,543 tons GHG Light-weight, longer wheel-base vehicle (17.9 mpg): 4.965 tons GHG	Note: heavy trucks may actually drive 60,000+ miles/year.  Actual mileage may vary between 6.6-7.8 mpg. Diesel has higher GHG emissions than gas.
Automobile – Motor Automobile – Electric	Average vehicle-car (24.6 mpg): 3.613 tons GHG Average High-MPG Hybrid (55 mpg): 1.616 tons GHG Average Electric (103 mpg equivalent):  0.867 tons GHG	Notes: Average car includes passenger cars, SUVs, vans, light trucks with short wheel-base.
Motorcycle	3500 cc (44 mpg): 2.020 tons GHG Best in class (2024) 750 cc: 1.367 tons GHG (assumes 65 mpg) 500 cc (A2 license): 1.01 tons GHG (assumes 88 mpg*) 125 cc (A1 license): 0.658 tons GHG (assumes 135 mpg*) cc=cubic centimeter engine	Notes: Actual motorcycle mileage is near 2,150 miles/year (FHA, 2024) * Best in class mpg (West, 2024): 750 cc: 51-71 mpg 500 cc: 79-88 mpg 125 cc: 125-138 mpg
E-bicycle	Varies by e-bike and your weight	Benefit: Can get some exercise with these too!

Sources:  

• MPG averages are taken or estimated from (Federal Highway Administration, 2024).
• Motorcycle MPG are taken from (West, 2024).

Calculate Your Current and Potential Future Greenhouse Gas Impact

The tables below easily enable you to see the greenhouse gases and gasoline costs for a given annual mileage and miles per gallon. Alternatively, we provide an Excel spreadsheet that enables you to easily calculate your trip and mileage greenhouse gases, under the tab: Calculate Your Footprint. Our spreadsheet can also work with kilometers.

Table: Greenhouse Gases (in Kg) resulting from a given Mileage and MPG

Miles per Gallon	Total Annual Mileage (in miles)
	8,000	10,000	12,000	14,000	16,000	18,000	20,000
5	14219	17774	21329	24884	28438	31993	35548
10	7110	8887	10664	12442	14219	15997	17774
15	4740	5925	6318	7371	8424	9477	10531
20	3555	4444	5332	6221	7110	7998	8887
25	2844	3555	4266	4977	5688	6399	7110
30	2370	2962	3555	4147	4740	5332	5925
35	2031	2539	3047	3555	4063	4570	5078
40	1777	2222	2666	3110	3555	3999	4444
45	1580	1975	2370	2765	3160	3555	3950
50	1422	1777	2133	2488	2844	3199	3555
55	1293	1616	1939	2262	2585	2908	3232
60	1185	1481	1777	2074	2370	2666	2962
65	1094	1367	1641	1914	2188	2461	2734
70	1016	1270	1523	1777	2031	2285	2539
75	948	1185	1422	1659	1896	2133	2370
80	889	1111	1333	1555	1777	2000	2222
85	836	1046	1255	1464	1673	1882	2091
90	790	987	1185	1382	1580	1777	1975
95	748	935	1123	1310	1497	1684	1871
100	711	889	1066	1244	1422	1600	1777

How to Calculate: The table and graph above is calculated using the following equations, which you may use to calculate more specifically your individual greenhouse gases (in Kilograms – Kg) (EPA 2024):

GHG_{GasolineVehicles} =Mileage/MPG*8.887                                                    (1)

GHG_{DieselVehicles} =Mileage/MPG*10.180                                                     (2)

Reduce Future Fuel Costs

There are cost benefits of selecting a higher MPG vehicle: reduced fuel costs.  The following tables show annual gas costs at $3 and $4 per gallon.  When gas costs rise, and incomes plateau or stagnate, there is security in knowing that you are more immune to unstable gas prices.  As easy-access and cleaner fossil fuels deplete, remaining resources become more expensive to extract, often require more and scarcer water resources to refine, and cause more environmental damage due to the dirtiness of the remaining fossil fuels.  Future fuel prices will likely only increase and result in worse environmental effects. To read the table below, select your annual mileage from the top column (in bold) and follow the column down to your average miles per gallon (MPG).

Table: Annual Gas Costs at $3/Gallon

	Annual Mileage
MPG	8000 miles	10000 miles	12000 miles	14000 miles	16000 miles	18000 miles	20000 miles
5	4800	6000	7200	8400	9600	10800	12000
10	2400	3000	3600	4200	4800	5400	6000
15	1600	2000	2400	2800	3200	3600	4000
20	1200	1500	1800	2100	2400	2700	3000
25	960	1200	1440	1680	1920	2160	2400
30	800	1000	1200	1400	1600	1800	2000
35	686	857	1029	1200	1371	1543	1714
40	600	750	900	1050	1200	1350	1500
45	533	667	800	933	1067	1200	1333
50	480	600	720	840	960	1080	1200
55	436	545	655	764	873	982	1091
60	400	500	600	700	800	900	1000
65	369	462	554	646	738	831	923
70	343	429	514	600	686	771	857
75	320	400	480	560	640	720	800
80	300	375	450	525	600	675	750
85	282	353	424	494	565	635	706
90	267	333	400	467	533	600	667
95	253	316	379	442	505	568	632
100	240	300	360	420	480	540	600
105	229	286	343	400	457	514	571
110	218	273	327	382	436	491	545
115	209	261	313	365	417	470	522
120	200	250	300	350	400	450	500
125	192	240	288	336	384	432	480
130	185	231	277	323	369	415	462
135	178	222	267	311	356	400	444

Table: Annual Gas Costs at $4/Gallon

MPG	Annual Mileage
	8000 miles	10000 miles	12000 miles	14000 miles	16000 miles	18000 miles	20000 miles
5	6400	8000	9600	11200	12800	14400	16000
10	3200	4000	4800	5600	6400	7200	8000
15	2133	2667	3200	3733	4267	4800	5333
20	1600	2000	2400	2800	3200	3600	4000
25	1280	1600	1920	2240	2560	2880	3200
30	1067	1333	1600	1867	2133	2400	2667
35	914	1143	1371	1600	1829	2057	2286
40	800	1000	1200	1400	1600	1800	2000
45	711	889	1067	1244	1422	1600	1778
50	640	800	960	1120	1280	1440	1600
55	582	727	873	1018	1164	1309	1455
60	533	667	800	933	1067	1200	1333
65	492	615	738	862	985	1108	1231
70	457	571	686	800	914	1029	1143
75	427	533	640	747	853	960	1067
80	400	500	600	700	800	900	1000
85	376	471	565	659	753	847	941
90	356	444	533	622	711	800	889
95	337	421	505	589	674	758	842
100	320	400	480	560	640	720	800
105	305	381	457	533	610	686	762
110	291	364	436	509	582	655	727
115	278	348	417	487	557	626	696
120	267	333	400	467	533	600	667
125	256	320	384	448	512	576	640
130	246	308	369	431	492	554	615
135	237	296	356	415	474	533	593

References

• EPA (2024) Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Typical Passenger Vehicle. United States Environmental Protection Agency. From: https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-typical-passenger-vehicle.
• Federal Highway Administration (2024) Highway Statistics Series: Annual Vehicle Distance Traveled in Miles and Related Data – 2020 by Highway Category and Vehicle Type, Updated Jan. 2024. U.S. Dept. of Transportation. From: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics/2020/vm1.cfm.
• EPA (2025) Tailpipe Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Typical Passenger Vehicle, June 12, 2025. From: https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-typical-passenger-vehicle.
• EPA (2024) Emission Factors for Greenhouse Gas Inventories. Center for Corporate Climate Leadership, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. June 5, 2024.  From: https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2024-02/ghg-emission-factors-hub-2024.pdf.
• DoE/EPA (2025) www.fueleconomy.gov: the official U.S. government source for fuel economy information. U.S. Dept of Energy & U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Accessed October 29, 2025. From: https://fueleconomy.gov.