TRANSPORTATION ENERGY DATA BOOK: EDITION 20 - Center for ...

Highway
Automobiles
Motorcycles
Table 6.4
Vehicle Stock and New Sales in the
United States, 1998 Calendar Year
Stock -The number of vehicles in use by EPA size class were derived as follows: Market Shares
by EPA size class for new car sales from 1970-75 were taken from the DOT, NHTSA,
Automotive CharacteristicsHistoricalDataBase, Washington, DC. Market shares for the
years 1976-90 were found in Linda S. Williams and Patricia S. Hu, Highway Vehicle
MPG and Market Shares Report: Model Year 1990, ORNL-6672, April 1991, and
Table 7 and the ORNL MPG and Market Shares Database, thereafter. These data were
assumed to represent the number of cars registered in each size class for each year. These
percentages were applied to the automobiles in operation for that year as reported by The
Polk Company (FURTHER REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED) and summed to calculate
the total mix. This method assumed that all vehicles, large and small, were scrapped at
the same rate.
Sales - Domestic, import, and total sales were from Ward’s Motor Vehicle Facts and Figures
1999, p. 15. The domestic sales were distributed by size class according to the following
percentages: Two seater, 0.0%; Minicompact, 18.9%; Subcompact, 27.6%; Compact
37.3%; Midsize, 15.4%; and Large, 0.8%. The import sales were distributed by size class
according to the following percentages: Two-seater, 0.9%; Minicompact, 16.4%;
Subcompact, 33.7%; Compact, 44.2%; Midsize, 1.3%; and Large, 3.5%. These
percentages were derived from the ORNL MPG and Market Shares Database. Domesticsponsored
imports (captive imports) were included in the import figure only.
Business Jleet autos - Bobit Publishing Company, Automotive Fleet Research Department,
Automotive Fleet Factboolc 1999, Redondo Beach, CA, 1999.
Personal autos - Difference between total vehicle stock and business fleet autos.
See Glossary for deJinition of Automobile Size Classijkations.
Stock - DOT, FHWA, Highway Statistics 1998, Table VM- 1, 1999.
Recreational Vehicles
Sales - Ward’s Automotive Yearbook 1999, U.S. Recreation Vehicle Shipments by Type,
“Total,” p. 242.
TRANSPORTATION ENERGY DATA BOOK: EDITION 20-2000
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