Nah, We're Keeping Our Fuel Economy Targets: EPA
Fuel economy standards set by the Obama administration for the 2022 to 2025 model years will remain, the Environmental Protection Agency has stated.
The environmental regulator announced its proposed determination earlier today, part of its midterm review of the country’s corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) targets. Forget cheap gas and never mind the SUV craze — 54.5 miles per gallon is still the government’s goal.
While it still needs to make a final determination, it appears the EPA won’t be swayed by recent changes in the automotive landscape. The current targets were issued in 2012.
The regulator claims it made its determination after updating its analyses, consulting the industry and other stakeholders, and reviewing a technical assessment. More than 200,000 public comments flowed in from July’s draft technical assessment report (TAR).
In the TAR, the EPA, National Highway Traffic Transportation Administration (NHTSA) and California Air Resources Board (CARB) predicted that, on their present course, automakers would undercut the 2025 target. By its estimate, the country’s average gas mileage would only hit 50 to 52.6 miles per gallon by 2025.
Still, the regulators applauded automakers for adopting fuel-saving technologies. Smaller-displacement, turbocharged engines, stop-start systems, hybridization, direct injection and battery electric vehicles helped the industry make large strides towards the goal.
Lobby groups, especially the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, cried foul. Meeting the target meant an average of $1,800 tacked onto the sticker price of a vehicle, the Alliance claimed. The EPA disagreed, and now claims the actual cost is lower than it predicted in the TAR. According to the regulator, automakers and carbuyers can afford to reach the target.
“The auto industry can meet the standards primarily with advanced gasoline vehicle technologies and with very low levels of strong hybridization and full electrification (plug-in vehicles),” the determination reads.
The public comment period for the determination ends on December 30, 2016.
More by Steph Willems
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Possibly the Trump administration can reign in the EPA. I've mentioned before, in this same forum, dramatically increasing fuel economy of automobiles can lead to increased highway deaths. If the manufacturers have to reduce weight to extremes to achieve these MPH figures, occupants will have less mass there to protect them resulting in more injuries and deaths. The EPA has never taken responsibility for this. Previous dramatic downsizing has done this before.
I'm sure any of the major automobile manufacturers can produce vehicles that meet the EPA's gas mileage target. The question is whether those vehicles will satisfy consumers and whether they will be affordable. Very few people keep their cars until they are worn beyond the point of practical repairability. If they did, the used car market wouldn't exist. If the EPA pushes too hard on emissions and the NHTSA on safety, buyers will opt to keep their old cars longer instead of trading them in on new ones. Both agencies might get their wishes on new vehicles but performance of the fleet actually on the road will change very little.