CAFE

  • 2013 Audi TDI range

    Audi and corporate parent Volkswagen believe clean diesels are being ignored by government regulations and incentive programs that promote hybrids and pure electric cars.

  • Natural-gas vehicle prototypes, Los Angeles, May 2013 - group shot at Playa del Rey storage field
    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...

  • 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid, production version road test, San Diego, CA, Jan 2012
    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...

  • 54.5 MPG CAFE standard for 2025
    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...

  • 2011 Fuel Economy Labels
    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...

  • 2013 Chrysler 200 Sedan
    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...

  • Average sales-weighted fuel economy of purchased new vehicles, Oct 2007 - Oct 2012 (via UMTRI)

    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...

  • Cadillac dealership
    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...

  • 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid, production version road test, San Diego, CA, Jan 2012
    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...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Volt during IIHS crash testing
    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...

  • Gas pump
    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...

  • Silverado Hybrid Badge
    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...

  • Fuel gauge

    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...

  • Chrome exhaust pipe
    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...

  • 54.5 MPG CAFE standard for 2025
    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...

  • President Obama inspects the 2011 Chevrolet Volt
    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...

  • 54.5 MPG CAFE standard for 2025
    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...

  • Auto loan
    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...

  • 2012 Hyundai Elantra

    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...

  • 2005 Subaru Outback Rear
    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...

  • 2011 Hyundai Elantra, Grant's Tomb, New York City
    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...

  • Light-duty vehicle type scenario, now-2050 (California Air Resources Board)
    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...

  • 2011 Fuel Economy Labels
    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...

  • Used car salesman
    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...

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