A major goal of “cash for clunkers” was to remove older and polluting vehicles from the road. To cash in on rebates of $3,500 to $4,500, car buyers had to buy new vehicles with better gas mileage than their trade-ins that were scrapped by dealers. For passenger cars, that difference had to be at least 4 mpg. But for buyers of SUVs, pickups and minivans, that difference had to be only 2 mpg.

That meant buyers trading in vehicles that dated to the mid-1980s, well before manufacturers put a priority on fuel economy, could qualify for the credits while buying trucks and SUVs that get less than 20 mpg.

The data was the first account of all the new cars sold through the program — prior to last week, the government had only released a list of top-10 sellers, which was loaded with smaller vehicles with higher gas mileage like the Toyota Corolla and the Ford Focus.

The Corolla was the top-selling new vehicle, with 29,488 sales. It was followed by the Honda Civic with 28,456, the Toyota Camry with 27,137 and the Ford Focus with 22,388.

But some crossovers and pickups were also among the best-selling vehicles in the program when different versions of the vehicle were accounted for. The government’s analysis had considered two-wheel and four-wheel versions of a car or truck to be a different vehicle.

The Ford Escape, for example, can be purchased with four-wheel or front-wheel drive, as a hybrid version or with an engine capable of running on flexible fuel such as E85 ethanol.

All told, Ford sold 21,894 Escapes through the program, the fifth-most in the program. Honda sold 20,106 versions of the CR-V crossover — more than half of the CR-Vs were 2009 four-wheel-drive models.

“Cash for clunkers” sales included 16,330 Chevrolet Silverado pickups when all models were taken into account.

Ford, meanwhile, sold 16,263 F-150 pickups, which come equipped with multiple engine assortments.

The Toyota Prius, meanwhile, a poster child for fuel efficiency, sold 15,013 vehicles through the program, fewer than the Nissan Altima, Honda Accord and Toyota RAV4.

Ford will start drawing on the loan by month’s end to retool factories in Michigan, Kentucky, Missouri and Ohio to produce more fuel-efficient models.

General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC have pending applications seeking loans from the program.

The department plans to make additional loans under this program over the next several months to large and small automakers and parts suppliers.

Earlier this week, the Environmental Protection Agency and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed increasing fuel efficiency standards by 4.3 percent annually between the 2012 model year and 2016 model year.

Those changes will cost the auto industry $60 billion and add about $1,100 to the cost of an average vehicle.

Chu said that the administration’s proposal essentially advances what Congress required in 2007, when it said fuel efficiency standards must be at least a fleet-wide average of 35 mpg by 2020.

“Our personal vehicles, we haven’t been making much progress,” Chu told a clean energy panel outside of Philadelphia.

“President Obama has increased the fuel mileage standards, advanced them by four years. We can do a lot more.”

Chu said “there’s some very exciting opportunities in American companies for electric hybrids and all electric cars.”

The administration last month awarded $2.4 billion in grants to boost electric vehicles and battery technology.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell disclosed that CT&T, the South Korean company behind the all-electric e-Zone car and city EV, plans to build the vehicles in Pennsylvania and open distribution centers there.

The vehicles don’t go faster than 40 mph and are only for city use.

“It’s not a golf cart. It’s a real car,” Rendell said.

CT&T announced last week it would build the two small electric vehicles at a joint venture in Riverside County in southern California.

“I think electric cars are coming faster than anybody thinks,” Rendell said.