Vehicle Fuel Economy API

About the Vehicle Fuel Economy API

A fuel economy API built on the US EPA and Department of Energy fueleconomy.gov data, the figures on every new car's window sticker. It covers about 50,000 vehicle configurations from 1984 to the coming model year: gasoline, diesel, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, battery electric, flex-fuel, natural gas and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

Search by make, model or both, narrow by model year and fuel type, and page through the results. Each vehicle returns its model year, make, model and base model, EPA vehicle class, powertrain, fuel, drive, transmission and engine (cylinders, displacement, turbo or supercharger, electric motor), with city, highway and combined MPG, or MPGe for electric vehicles. Electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids add their EPA electric range in miles and kilometres, and plug-in hybrids their MPGe on electricity.

Paid plans add the running-cost and environmental figures: energy use in kWh per 100 miles, charge time on a 240V and 120V circuit and the onboard charger, the EPA's annual fuel cost estimate, the five-year saving or extra cost against the average new vehicle, tailpipe CO2 in grams per mile, and the EPA fuel economy, greenhouse gas and smog scores on a 1-10 scale. The data is refreshed weekly from fueleconomy.gov.

How it works

Either make or model is required. make is matched after dropping punctuation and case, with Chevy, VW and Mercedes accepted; model matches the start or any part of the EPA's full model name or base model, so model=Camry returns Camry, Camry Hybrid LE and Camry AWD LE/SE. A model without a make searches every make that builds it. year and fuelType narrow the result, and results are ordered newest model year first, then by model name; limit (default 20, at most 50) and page walk through them.

The data is fueleconomy.gov's vehicles file, rebuilt weekly, joined to its emissions file for the smog rating (the federal rating where a vehicle has both a federal and a California one). Each row is one EPA test configuration: a model year, engine, transmission and drive. mpg is the EPA's adjusted label value on the primary fuel, in MPGe for electric vehicles; plug-in hybrids show gasoline MPG in mpg and MPGe on electricity in mpgAlternateFuel, with their charge-depleting electric range in electric.rangeMiles.

powertrain is derived from the EPA's alternative fuel type and fuel: electric, plugin_hybrid, hybrid, hydrogen, flex_fuel, cng, diesel or gasoline. Values the EPA leaves blank or zero are null. No match returns 404. On the Free plan kWh per 100 miles, charge times, the onboard charger, annual fuel cost, five-year savings, CO2 and scores are null.

What people use it for

Car Shopping Sites

Show EPA MPG, EV range and running costs beside each listing and let buyers compare trims.

Fleet Electrification

Compare the annual fuel cost and CO2 of current vehicles against electric replacements.

Insurance and Finance

Add powertrain, fuel type and efficiency to vehicle records for pricing and green-loan eligibility.

Sustainability Reporting

Estimate tailpipe CO2 per mile for company cars and mileage claims.

Ways to call it

One endpoint, many ways in — REST with JSON, XML, YAML and CSV, plus GraphQL and an MCP interface for AI agents.

JSON

Default REST response

XML

Markup format

YAML

Human-readable

CSV

Tabular export

Beta

GraphQL

Query language

New

MCP

For AI agents

Request parameters — GET /v1/vehiclefueleconomy

Sent in the query string. Premium parameters are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them. Anything not listed here is dropped rather than passed through.

Optional

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curl "https://api.apiverve.com/v1/vehiclefueleconomy?make=Tesla&model=Model%203&year=2024&fuelType=electric&limit=20&page=1" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Authentication

Send your key in the x-api-key header. That is the only auth step — no token exchange, and no per-endpoint scope to configure.

Response — GET /v1/vehiclefueleconomy

Every APIVerve endpoint returns the same three top-level keys, so one response handler covers your whole integration: status, error and data. Only data changes shape.

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{
  "status": "ok",
  "error": null,
  "data": {
    "count": 5,
    "page": 1,
    "pages": 3,
    "returned": 2,
    "vehicles": [
      {
        "epaId": 47908,
        "year": 2024,
        "make": "Tesla",
        "model": "Model 3 Long Range AWD",
        "baseModel": "Model 3",
        "vehicleClass": "Midsize Cars",
        "powertrain": "electric",
        "fuelType": "Electricity",
        "drive": "All-Wheel Drive",
        "transmission": "Automatic (A1)",
        "engine": {
          "cylinders": null,
          "displacementL": null,
          "turbocharged": false,
          "supercharged": false,
          "description": null,
          "electricMotor": "84 and 191 kW ACPM 3-Phase"
        },
        "startStop": false,
        "mpg": {
          "unit": "MPGe",
          "city": 137,
          "highway": 124,
          "combined": 130
        },
        "mpgAlternateFuel": null,
        "electric": {
          "rangeMiles": 342,
          "rangeCityMiles": 357,
          "rangeHighwayMiles": 323,
          "rangeKm": 550,
          "kwhPer100Miles": {
            "city": 24.7,
            "highway": 27.2,
            "combined": 25.8
          },
          "chargeTime240vHours": 9.4,
          "chargeTime120vHours": null,
          "onboardCharger": null
        },
        "annualFuelCostUsd": 600,
        "fiveYearSavingsUsd": 8000,
        "co2GramsPerMile": 0,
        "scores": {
          "fuelEconomy": 10,
          "greenhouseGas": 10,
          "smog": 10
        },
        "gasGuzzler": false
      },
      {
        "epaId": 48473,
        "year": 2024,
        "make": "Tesla",
        "model": "Model 3 Long Range AWD-E",
        "baseModel": "Model 3",
        "vehicleClass": "Midsize Cars",
        "powertrain": "electric",
        "fuelType": "Electricity",
        "drive": "All-Wheel Drive",
        "transmission": "Automatic (A1)",
        "engine": {
          "cylinders": null,
          "displacementL": null,
          "turbocharged": false,
          "supercharged": false,
          "description": null,
          "electricMotor": "191 kW ACPM 3-Phase"
        },
        "startStop": false,
        "mpg": {
          "unit": "MPGe",
          "city": 133,
          "highway": 122,
          "combined": 128
        },
        "mpgAlternateFuel": null,
        "electric": {
          "rangeMiles": 341,
          "rangeCityMiles": 355,
          "rangeHighwayMiles": 324,
          "rangeKm": 549,
          "kwhPer100Miles": {
            "city": 25.3,
            "highway": 27.7,
            "combined": 26.4
          },
          "chargeTime240vHours": 10,
          "chargeTime120vHours": null,
          "onboardCharger": null
        },
        "annualFuelCostUsd": 600,
        "fiveYearSavingsUsd": 8000,
        "co2GramsPerMile": 0,
        "scores": {
          "fuelEconomy": 10,
          "greenhouseGas": 10,
          "smog": 10
        },
        "gasGuzzler": false
      }
    ]
  }
}

Response fields

Paths are relative to data. Premium fields are absent rather than zeroed on plans that do not include them, so check for presence instead of comparing to 0.

Response headers

Every response carries your balance, so your own code always knows where it stands without polling anything. All four are exposed to browsers through CORS.

Errors

Read the HTTP status first, then error for the specific reason. The body names the parameter that has to change.

What a call costs — 1 credits per call

Credits are shared across every APIVerve API — one balance, one key, one bill. Failed requests never count against it, so a rejected input costs nothing.

Calls are what the credits buy at this API's rate — spend them here, on any of the other APIs, or across both. Nothing is reserved per endpoint.

Zero-code embed — one snippet, no backend

Drop an interactive Vehicle Fuel Economy form onto any page. The widget calls the API for you, so no key ever appears in your markup and there is nothing to deploy.

Changelog — Vehicle Fuel Economy API

Every change to this endpoint, newest first. Breaking changes ship as a new version and the previous one keeps serving — response fields are added, never removed or retyped in place, so an integration written against v1 keeps working.

Currently v1Data refreshed weekly