Report: White House lowers 2025 CAFE target to 54.5 mpg
What’s the difference between 56.2 and 54.5 miles per gallon? Way more than 1.7 mpg, that’s for sure.
is reporting that the Obama White House is dialing down the proposed 2025 fuel economy requirement to 54.5 mpg. Earlier, we had heard that would be the new target for 2025 – then that got slashed to 56.2. The numbers could, of course, change again, but this plan would effectively mean passenger cars will need to become, on average, five percent more fuel efficient every year between 2017 and 2025. Trucks will be allowed to get cleaner slower: three percent improvements each year between 2017 and 2021 and then five percent annually until 2025.
One of the contentious issues here is whether the higher fuel economy level will help or hurt the economy and the auto industry. The Auto Alliance, which represents most major automakers, says that the OEMs are already putting fuel efficient vehicles on the market. There are many voices, though, that don’t want the government to keep lowering the target. , for example, is an advertising campaign targeting lawmakers in D.C. and trying to push them to go high.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released a study last fall that claimed a five-percent annual increase in fuel economy would drive up the cost of a new vehicle by $2,100. The Consumer Federation of America counters that a 56-mpg threshold would “save consumers over $6,000 per vehicle in gasoline costs over the vehicle’s lifetime” (details ).
So, that 1.7-mpg drop contains a pretty big political fight. The number is moving in the direction that the automakers want, but whether they will accept it as low enough is not yet clear.
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