CAFE
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Audi and corporate parent Volkswagen believe clean diesels are being ignored by government regulations and incentive programs that promote hybrids and pure electric cars.
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Senate Bill Boosts CAFE Ratings For Natural-Gas Vehicles With Gasoline Backup
A new bill in the U.S. Senate would amend Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules to encourage production of a new class of natural-gas vehicles with "reserve" gasoline tanks. As demonstrated in a drive of prototype vehicles earlier this year, the range-extended natural gas cars would run for perhaps...
John Voelcker -
Consumers DO Want High-MPG Vehicles: Not Such A Hard Sell After All
The 54.5 mpg Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards set for 2025 have caused much wailing and gnashing of teeth from some quarters, but automakers haven't been among them. The automakers have been quite supportive in fact--perhaps knowing all along what a new analysis has discovered: That...
Antony Ingram -
Tougher Gas Mileage Rules: Some Makers Are Way Ahead
Several Japanese automakers are off to a great start meeting future emissions and gas mileage targets, according to the latest EPA data. As rules become ever more stringent requiring automakers to build cleaner, lower-consumption cars, Toyota, Honda and Nissan already build cars that meet targets...
Antony Ingram -
Breast-Beating Over EPA Mileage Labels: Will Ratings Change?
Obviously, fuel economy will be an increasingly big deal in years to come. The gas-mileage ratings of new cars and trucks must double (and then some) between last year and 2025. But as two recent news events pointed out once again, EPA mileage ratings on the window stickers of new cars may not be...
John Voelcker -
Chrysler, Toyota Now United In Shunning Mexican Fuel Standards
While automakers selling cars in North America have been happy to accept the 2025 Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, the same can't be said for similar plans in Mexico. Last month we described how Toyota was refusing to support the new standards--and now Chrysler has joined the Japanese...
Antony Ingram -
The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute has tracked fuel economy and new car sales since October 2007, and during those five years, we've seen gradual gains in efficiency. Today, UMTRI says that new vehicles sold in October reached a record-high 24.1 mpg. The question is: why? To answer that, we probably need to go back to 1975, when Congress enacted the Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations. CAFE was a response to the oil crisis of the 1970s, which was brought about by a range of factors, including the decline of American oil production, the Yom Kippur War, and a...
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Car Dealers Continue Push To Rethink 2025 Gas Mileage Rules
Approved by auto manufacturers, environmental groups and the White House, 2025's 54.5 mpg gas mileage rules are still causing headaches for dealers. The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) continues to oppose the ruling, and hopes that newly introduced legislation will lead to a re-think...
Antony Ingram -
Toyota Supports Higher MPG Standards In U.S. But Not Mexico?
Toyota has a reputation among U.S. car buyers for being green and offering fuel-efficient vehicles. But a recent post on the Natural Resources Defense Council blog painted a different picture. Noting that Toyota was suing to stop the implementation of fuel-economy rules in Mexico that duplicate...
John Voelcker -
House Bill Demands Safety, Jobs Analysis Of Gas-Mileage Rules
Politics is at best a messy and adversarial process. Add in a presidential election and the currently polarized political mood, and anything at all done by government is usually exploited for political gain--by one side or another, often by both from different stances. Which seems a good lens to...
John Voelcker -
Point Of View: Gas Taxes Are Better Than Fuel Economy Rules--Discuss
With the announcement of final rules for corporate average fuel efficiency of 54.5 mpg by 2025, the NHTSA and EPA have done two things. The agencies have given carmakers both a major technological challenge--double the effective gas mileage of your vehicles in 12 years--and something they have long...
John Voelcker -
GM May Kill Two-Mode Hybrid Pickups, SUVs: Report
"We can't provide you with any information related to future product technologies or timing." That's the standard response from carmakers--in this case, from Kevin Kelly, GM's Manager, Electric Vehicle and Hybrid Communications--when asked a question they'd rather not address. Our question was...
John Voelcker -
Yesterday, we revealed the news that the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for 2025 have been confirmed after a long political battle. Essentially, the standards will require a carmaker's range of cars and trucks to meet an average of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. That sounds like a difficult target to hit--after all, the most efficient hybrid-electric cars on sale at the moment average around 50 mpg, and getting large sedans and sports cars to meet that target won't be an easy task. For most cars and light trucks, it will require efficiency to double. The expected benefits are...
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It’s Official: Greener Cars Have Helped Improve LA’s Air Quality
Given the length of time the U.S. Government is taking to set new gas mileage standards for 2025, you’d be forgiven for thinking the only benefit from driving a high gas-mileage car is the savings you make at the pump. You’d be wrong. Driving high gas mileage cars equates to lower...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
U.S. Government Delays Final Ruling On 2025 Gas Mileage Standards
Yesterday, the U.S. EPA had planned to release final rules on new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations requiring automakers to achieve average fuel economies of 54.5 mpg by 2025. But continued opposition and bitter disagreements has lead the current administration to delay the ruling...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
White House Played Hardball To Set 54.5-MPG Standards
Politics is hardball, as every election season shows us. And getting very, very large and powerful auto companies to do something they really don't want to do is very, very hard. Even, that is, if you have a few useful levers, in the form of independent California regulators supported by a Supreme...
John Voelcker -
U.S. House To EPA: We Won't Let You Set Emissions Laws
With 2025's 54.5 mpg corporate average fuel economy standards set to be finalized towards the end of this year, carmakers will also have to meet a 34.1 mpg average by 2016. Alongside these economy targets, carmakers--and perhaps other businesses--will also be bound by the EPA's greenhouse gas...
Antony Ingram -
More Doom & Gloom On Higher MPG Standards From Car Dealers
It's not news that new, higher fuel-economy standards will raise the cost of future cars in real dollars. Now a new study, funded by the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), suggests that those increases will prevent up to 7 million buyers from affording new cars in 2025. That's out of a...
John Voelcker -
In four years’ time, every automaker in the U.S. will have to ensure that their fleet-wide fuel economy is 36 mpg or better under tough new 2016 Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. But according to a University of Michigan study, the average fuel economy of new cars and light-duty trucks sold in the U.S. has only risen by 3 MPG in the past four years to an average economy of 21.5 mpg. Comparing the fuel economy of cars and light-duty vehicles on sale in 2008 to those on sale in 2012, the study concluded that some vehicle segments exhibited a better average gas mileage...
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New Mileage Rules Encourage Small Cars To Become Big Trucks For Lower MPG
Automakers have long known there's a double standard for gas mileage. Cars have to meet higher goals, trucks have less stringent requirements. And the larger the vehicle, the lower the average fuel economy it has to deliver. The proposed fuel economy standards for 2017 through 2025 vehicles...
John Voelcker -
Hyundai Hits Mileage Targets Early, Says Elantra 40-MPG Rating Accurate
South-Korean automaker Hyundai announced last week that it achieved a fleet-wide corporate average fuel economy of 36 mpg across its entire 2011 range. In doing so, Hyundai has essentially met U.S. 2016 Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards set for cars and light-duty trucks four years...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
CA To Require Zero-Emission Vehicles On Top Of Gas-Mileage Rules
The NHTSA and EPA are closing in on their final rules for 2017-2025 corporate average fuel economy regulations, but there's a wild card in the pack. California, which has the authority to set its own emissions laws, is going along with the proposed gas-mileage levels, which will take 2025...
John Voelcker -
It’s Official: Car Buyers Want Greener Cars, Better Gas Mileage, Lower Emissions
While certain parts of the automotive industry might not be feeling the love towards the tough new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards announced yesterday, it turns out that 93 percent of car owners are want to buy greener, cleaner cars. In a study conducted by Consumer Reports, 86...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
Auto Dealers Lobby Against Obama's Higher Gas-Mileage Rules
Yesterday, auto dealers met with their members of Congress to try to delay new rules that would stiffen the gas-mileage requirements for cars sold in model years 2017 to 2025. The National Auto Dealers Association made the rounds to pitch a proposal that would amend spending legislation for the...
John Voelcker