Whether someone wants to drive a truck, SUV, or car, increased fuel efficiency remains the number one purchase criterion for American car buyers. What we’re seeing in the market place due to low and stable gas prices is a migration to larger vehicles, but the expectation now is that those vehicles come with increased fuel efficiency.

—Joe Walicki, president of Johnson Controls Power Solutions

MaryAnn Wright, group vice president of Technology and Industry Relations, Johnson Controls Power Solutions, noted that automakers have made significant advances in fuel efficiency and reduced emissions through implementation of several new technologies, such as turbo charging, engine downsizing and light weighting across their fleets. The next big technology in the US is start-stop, with an increase in fuel efficiency of up to 5%, she suggested.

By 2020, Johnson Controls predicts 50% of all new vehicles in the US will have start-stop technology. GM plans to make it standard across its fleet by 2020 and Ford announced it will integrate start-stop across all EcoBoost equipped vehicles.

In the last year, there were more than twice the number of start-stop vehicles produced in the US versus the total of all types of hybrid, plug-in and electric vehicles combined, and we see that trend continuing.

—Joe Walicki

The survey also found, that of those consumers open to buying a start-stop vehicle:

• 82% would consider start-stop for fuel savings

• 72% say environmental impact is a key benefit in driving interest in start-stop vehicles

• 57% would consider start-stop for its low incremental cost

The report presents the findings of a survey conducted among a sample of 1,006 adults comprising 504 men and 502 women, 18 years of age and older. The omnibus telephone study is conducted twice a week among a demographically representative US sample. This survey was live on 14-17 July 2016. The margin of error for this study is +/- 3.1%.