US EPA Fuel Economy Scraper

US EPA Fuel Economy Scraper

Scrape official EPA fuel economy data for any US vehicle from 1984 to today. Get city/highway/combined MPG, annual fuel cost, CO2 emissions, EV range, and engine specs per configuration. No API key required. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

The EPA's FuelEconomy.gov site holds the definitive MPG, emissions, and range data for every car and truck sold in the United States, but browsing it manually or stitching together API calls is slow. This Actor reads the public database directly, returning every engine and transmission variant for a year, make, or model in one flat dataset.\n\nIt works for gasoline, diesel, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and battery-electric vehicles, covering model years 1984 through the present.

Who uses it	What they scrape US EPA Fuel Economy for
Auto dealers and marketplaces	Populate vehicle listing pages with official MPG and annual fuel cost for every VIN in inventory.
Fleet managers	Compare total cost of ownership and CO2 emissions across candidate vehicles for a purchase decision.
Data journalists	Analyze fuel economy trends across decades of EPA data by manufacturer, vehicle class, or drivetrain.
EV researchers	Track electric range, MPGe, and charge time improvements across model years and competing makes.

What it does

This Actor collects official EPA fuel economy ratings, CO2 emissions, annual fuel cost estimates, and vehicle specifications by model year, make, model, or specific EPA vehicle ID, and returns each vehicle configuration as a flat row.

• 🚗 Vehicles mode: Feed a year, optional make and model, and get every engine/transmission/drivetrain configuration with full MPG, CO2, and cost detail.
• 📋 Models mode: Feed a year and make to list all available models without the per-configuration detail, useful for building dropdowns.
• 🏭 Makes mode: Feed only a year to return every manufacturer that sold vehicles in the US that model year.
• 🔍 Single vehicle mode: Look up one specific EPA vehicle ID to retrieve its complete fuel economy and spec record.
• 📊 Aggregation control: In vehicles mode, choose raw engine-config rows or one row per model with the best-MPG variant and a config count.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with US EPA Fuel Economy data

📈 Populate a car dealership website.

A dealer runs the Actor for a given year and make, then joins the resulting MPG and annual fuel cost fields to their inventory feed so every VDP shows official EPA numbers.

🔋 Compare EV range across model years.

An analyst scrapes all battery-electric vehicles from 2017 to 2024, groups by make and model, and charts how electric range and MPGe have improved generation over generation.

💰 Audit fleet fuel spend.

A logistics company pulls EPA combined MPG and annual fuel cost for their current fleet list, then models the savings from switching to hybrid or electric alternatives.

📰 Report on emissions trends.

A data journalist collects CO2 per mile and greenhouse gas scores for every vehicle sold since 1984, joining it to sales data to show how fleet-average emissions have shifted.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
Official EPA ratings	City, highway, and combined MPG straight from the U.S. Department of Energy database.
Full cost picture	Annual fuel cost estimate and fuel consumption in barrels per year, computed by the EPA.
Emissions data	Tailpipe CO2 in grams per mile and a greenhouse gas score for every configuration.
EV and PHEV metrics	Electric-only range, MPGe, charge time at 240V, and combined gasoline+electric range.
No registration	Reads the public website directly. No API key, no OAuth, no rate-limit headaches.

How it compares

Three other Apify actors also target EPA fuel economy data. Here is how this one compares on the capabilities their listings describe.

Feature	ParseForge	Car Fuel Economy Scraper: MPG, EV Range & CO2 by Model	Fuel Economy & Vehicle Specs Scraper (EPA FuelEconomy.gov)	VIN Decoder API
Full engine-config-level detail	Yes, every engine/transmission/drivetrain variant	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Aggregation to best-MPG model row	Yes, with configCount field	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Makes-only and models-only modes	Yes, for building dropdowns	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Single vehicle lookup by EPA ID	Yes, byId mode	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Annual fuel cost estimate	Yes	Yes	Not listed	Not listed
CO2 per mile and greenhouse gas score	Yes	Yes	Not listed	Not listed
EV range and charge time	Yes	Yes	Not listed	Not listed

Configure the run

Drive the Actor with a model year, an optional make and model, or a specific EPA vehicle ID. The maxItems limit stops collection as soon as enough rows are written, so you control the run size. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
  "mode": "vehicles",
  "year": 2024,
  "aggregateBy": "engineConfig",
  "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
  "mode": "vehicles",
  "year": 2024,
  "aggregateBy": "engineConfig",
  "maxItems": 200
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.0328 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$3.28
1,000 results	$32.80
10,000 results	$328.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the US EPA Fuel Economy Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to US EPA Fuel Economy through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/fueleconomy-gov-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results for a specific make and model?

Check the spelling and capitalization. The make and model fields must match the EPA's naming exactly. Run 'makes' mode for the year to see the exact make strings, then 'models' mode with that make to see the valid model names.

The run stopped before collecting all vehicles for the year.

The maxItems parameter limits how many rows are written. Increase it to cover the full year. A single model year can have thousands of engine configurations, so set maxItems to at least 10,000 for a complete pull.

I set a make but forgot the model and got too many results.

In vehicles mode, leaving model empty while setting a make returns every engine configuration for every model from that manufacturer. Add a model name to narrow the output, or lower maxItems to cap the run.

The MPG values look different from the window sticker I saw.

The EPA periodically updates its testing procedures and may revise ratings for older model years. The Actor returns the current values in the database, which are the official numbers as of the run date.

I need data for a model year before 1984.

The EPA's public database begins with model year 1984. Vehicles older than that are not available through this source. The year input enforces a minimum of 1984.

FAQ

Question	Answer
What model years does this cover?	The EPA database covers model years 1984 through the current year plus one forward year. Set the year input to any value in that range.
Does this include electric vehicles?	Yes. Battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles return electric-only range, MPGe, charge time at 240V, and combined gasoline+electric range where applicable.
What is the difference between engineConfig and model aggregation?	A single model like a Ford F-150 can have a dozen engine and transmission combinations, each with its own EPA vehicle ID. 'engineConfig' returns every one. 'model' picks the configuration with the highest combined MPG and returns one row per make+model, adding a configCount field so you know how many variants exist.
Can I get all vehicles for an entire year?	Yes. Set mode to 'vehicles', pick a year, leave make and model empty, and set maxItems high enough. The Actor will walk every make, then every model, then every engine configuration until it hits your limit.
How do I look up a specific car I already know about?	Use 'vehicles' mode with the year, make, and model filled in. If you have the EPA vehicle ID from a previous run, use 'byId' mode with that number for a direct lookup.
What does the greenhouse gas score mean?	It is an EPA rating from 1 to 10 that reflects a vehicle's tailpipe CO2 emissions relative to others in its class. Higher is cleaner.
Does this require an API key or registration?	No. The Actor reads the public FuelEconomy.gov website directly. You only need an Apify account to run it.
Can I export the data?	Yes. Apify supports export to CSV, JSON, Excel, XML, and several other formats from the dataset tab after a run completes.
How many vehicles can I scrape in one run?	You set the maxItems limit, up to 1,000,000. The Actor stops as soon as that many rows are written, so you control the run duration and dataset size.
What is an EPA vehicle ID?	Every unique engine, transmission, and drivetrain configuration tested by the EPA gets a numeric ID. You can find these in the vehicles-mode output and reuse them in byId mode for single-vehicle lookups.

Related actors

Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by U.S. Department of Energy. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.