EPA Fuel Economy API
MPG, range and emissions.
mpg_city, mpg_highway, mpg_combined, EV range, annual fuel cost, CO2 per mile and the greenhouse-gas score — sourced from fueleconomy.gov, inline on the same UUID as each car's specs. Plus the latest EIA fuel and electricity prices by state.
Free plan: 100 API calls/mo — no card.
Key endpoints
Economy fields ride inline on each car object — no separate economy call. Local fuel and electricity prices come from one more endpoint.
GET
/v1/cars
|
List cars with economy fields inline — filter by make, model, year, body, fuel type and EV-only. |
GET
/v1/cars/{uuid}
|
Single car by UUID — full specs plus mpg, range, annual fuel cost, CO2, GHG score and EPA class. |
GET
/v1/energy-prices?state=CA
|
Latest EIA retail prices for a state: weekly gasoline and diesel, monthly residential, commercial and all-sector electricity. |
Base URL: https://api.vehdb.com/v1
Fuel economy fields
Sourced from fueleconomy.gov (public domain), exposed inline on the car object.
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
mpg_city |
integer | EPA city fuel economy (MPG, or MPGe for EVs) |
mpg_highway |
integer | EPA highway fuel economy (MPG / MPGe) |
mpg_combined |
integer | EPA combined fuel economy (MPG / MPGe) |
epa_range_miles |
integer | EPA driving range in miles (electric vehicles) |
annual_fuel_cost |
integer | Estimated annual fuel cost in USD |
co2_gpm |
integer | Tailpipe CO2 emissions in grams per mile |
ghg_score |
integer | EPA greenhouse-gas score (1–10) |
five_year_fuel_savings |
integer | Estimated 5-year fuel savings vs. the average new vehicle (USD) |
epa_class |
string | EPA vehicle size class (e.g. Midsize Cars, Small SUV) |
Cost and emissions, answered inline
Specs say what the car is. EPA economy says what it costs to run and what it emits.
Running cost up front
mpg_combined, annual_fuel_cost and five_year_fuel_savings let you surface true cost of ownership without a second data source.
Emissions for compliance
co2_gpm and ghg_score give grams-per-mile and the EPA greenhouse-gas rating — ready for sustainability, ESG and fleet-emissions use cases.
EV range, same shape
epa_range_miles fills in for battery-electric vehicles, with co2_gpm at 0 and mpg fields using the MPGe equivalent.
See the Cars API, our data sources, and the vehicle data glossary.
Example response
A consistent data + meta shape with economy fields inline.
{
"data": [
{
"uuid": "c3d4e5f6-a7b8-9012-cdef-345678901234",
"make": "Tesla",
"model": "Model 3",
"year": 2025,
"fuel_type_name": "BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLE (BEV)",
"mpg_city": 138,
"mpg_highway": 126,
"mpg_combined": 132,
"epa_range_miles": 363,
"annual_fuel_cost": 600,
"co2_gpm": 0,
"ghg_score": 10,
"five_year_fuel_savings": 6500,
"epa_class": "Compact Cars"
}
],
"meta": { "current_page": 1, "last_page": 1, "per_page": 10, "total": 1 }
}
EIA energy prices
Price the fuel, not just the MPG
GET /v1/energy-prices?state=XX returns the latest U.S. Energy Information Administration retail prices: weekly regular, midgrade, premium and all-grades gasoline and diesel, and monthly residential, commercial and all-sector electricity. Pair them with a car's EPA MPG for a cost of ownership.
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| product | string | gasoline_regular, gasoline_midgrade, gasoline_premium, gasoline_all or diesel; electricity_residential, electricity_commercial or electricity_all |
| label | string | Display name, e.g. Regular gasoline or Electricity, residential |
| price | number | The latest retail price, in the unit below |
| unit | string | usd_per_gallon for fuel, cents_per_kwh for electricity |
| period | date | The week (fuel) or month (electricity) the price is for |
| frequency | string | weekly for fuel, monthly for electricity |
| area | string | Where the price is from, with area_code: for fuel the state's own EIA series, else its PADD region, else the U.S.; for electricity the state, else the U.S. |
The response groups them as fuel and electricity; each price counts one row.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), public domain.
Fuel Economy API FAQ
Common questions about VehDB's EPA fuel economy API.
Also see the Cars and Recalls & Safety APIs, our data sources, or the API overview.
Your AI agent's vehicle-data tools —
not glue code.
VehDB ships a native Model Context Protocol server. Claude, Cursor or any MCP client reads a car's EPA economy (get_vehicle) and the local fuel and electricity prices to cost it (energy_prices) as first-class tools — no wrappers, no scraping, no glue code to maintain.
- Native MCP tools — search_vehicles, recalls_for_vehicle, complaints_for_vehicle, tire_sizes_for_vehicle, my_lists — callable by Claude, Cursor or any agent.
- One-click AI connector in Claude; in any other MCP client, paste one URL and sign in: no token to copy. Scripts use an API token. Same data and quota as the REST API.
- No scraping, no function-calling boilerplate, no schema drift — the agent gets typed, documented tools.
{ "mcpServers": {
"vehdb": { "url": "https://mcp.vehdb.com/mcp" }
} }
Ship EPA economy on ~76,435 cars.
MPG, EV range, annual fuel cost and emissions from fueleconomy.gov — inline on the same UUID as each car's specs. Free tier: 100 calls/mo, no card.
100 free API calls every month · REST API + MCP server on every plan · No card to start · See pricing