CAFE
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With the approaching midterm review of the Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules coming up in the next two years, automakers and advocates are positioning themselves to lobby for changes to the rules. Auto companies are preparing to push aggressively not only to have those rules tweaked, relaxed, or delayed, but to do the same to California's zero-emission vehicle requirements. DON'T MISS: Fuel-Economy Rules Likely To Stay Put Through Midterm Review: Consensus The problem, makers say, is that with gasoline prices currently low and the fuel efficiency of all vehicles rising steadily under five...
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Why Higher Gas Taxes Would Have Been Best Way To Save Fuel
It's now a widely-accepted tenet of today's U.S. political landscape: You just can't come out and advocate for higher taxes. For any purpose, under any circumstances, no matter what the end purposes. Any politician who does so will be punished by voters. DON'T MISS: Low Gas Price An Opportunity For...
John Voelcker -
Let's Be Clear: Real 2025 Gas-Mileage Goal Is 40 MPG--Or So--Not 54.5 MPG
The difference between unadjusted CAFE figures and window-sticker fuel economy.
Stephen Edelstein -
Ford Patent For 11-Speed Automatic: Transmission Wars Escalate
Time was that the most gears you could get in an automatic transmission was three or four. Then came five- and six-speed automatics, which are now pretty much the standard (along with increasingly prevalent continuously variable transmissions, or CVTs). But the transmission wars have continued to...
John Voelcker -
How A Chevy Camaro Gets Greener: Student Competition In EcoCar 3
All cars are getting more fuel-efficient under the rising requirements for corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) from now through 2025. Still, if you thought about the category of cars with good gas mileage, the Chevrolet Camaro muscle car likely wouldn't be high on your list. DON'T MISS: How Do...
John Voelcker -
EPA Insider: Agency Bluffed Carmakers To Get CAFE Standards
The EPA initially asked for higher truck fuel-economy than it actually wanted, a new book claims.
Stephen Edelstein -
The idea of an all-electric Nissan BladeGlider sports car now seems to be somewhere between delayed and defunct, but the narrow-front delta-wing shape continues to intrigue and challenge vehicle designers. First unveiled in 2010 as a pure race car, an engine-driven DeltaWing car even competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans back in 2012. Recently, an offshoot of the DeltaWing racing operation proposed a road-going four-seat version of the car, equipped with such mundane passenger-car equipment as conventional hinged doors. DON'T MISS: Nissan BladeGlider Concept: Electric Delta Wing Racer For The...
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Gas Mileage Rules For 2025 Could Be Lowered If Buyers Stick With SUVs
Thus far, automakers appear to have had little trouble meeting the corporate average fuel economy rules that started for 2012 vehicle and will rise steadily through 2025. The general consensus so far is that carmakers have been able to raise their EPA ratings with a combination of tactics that...
John Voelcker -
Should Safer Cars Get Credit For More MPG? Automaker Trade Group Says Yes
As corporate average fuel economy standards continue to tighten each year, car companies have so far kept pace with the rising gas-mileage rules. But automakers are seeking credit for every possible advancement in new vehicles as they look toward an average goal of 54.5 mpg in 2025 (roughly...
John Voelcker -
Chrysler CEO: Industry Can Meet MPG Targets, But They Should Be Delayed
Sergio Marchionne, CEO of newly merged Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, is not a man to mince words. While carmakers can meet fuel-economy requirements for 2025, he said last week, he slammed government efforts to boost plug-in electric cars. The industry will find the most cost-effective way to meet...
John Voelcker -
Fuel-Economy Rules Likely To Stay Put Through Midterm Review: Consensus
Gas prices have fallen 40 percent in a year. Sales of SUVs and crossover utility vehicles are up, while hybrid sales are flat or falling. And a midterm review is coming up, giving auto companies a chance to argue that the corporate average fuel economy rules that stretch out to 2025 need to be...
John Voelcker -
Ford On Track To Meet 2025 Gas-Mileage Rules, CEO Says
Ford's CEO says the company is on track to meet U.S. fuel-economy standards.
Stephen Edelstein -
By most accounts, the world is pretty much awash in oil these days. Increases in North American shale-oil production have boosted supply to the point where there's now discussion of the U.S. becoming a net oil exporter sometime in the next decade. Meanwhile, the vehicle fleet is slowly getting more efficient--and U.S. gasoline consumption peaked in 2006 and has fallen steadily since then. DON'T MISS: Auto Industry Doing Fine In Meeting Gas-Mileage Goals, It Turns Out (Aug 2014) All of this has added up to produce remarkably low recent gasoline prices. In some parts of the U.S., drivers now...
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U.S. Will Meet Fuel-Economy Goals Despite Higher Truck, SUV Sales, EPA Says
An EPA report says carmakers are on schedule to meet the 54.5-mpg CAFE deadline.
Stephen Edelstein -
Chrysler Plug-In Hybrid Minivan Will Launch Late Next Year, Company Says
Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, has never been a fan of plug-in electric cars. So when he revealed at the Paris Motor Show that a plug-in hybrid version of the next Chrysler Town & Country minivan would arrive late next year, he added a few derogatory comments about the...
John Voelcker -
Start-Stop In U.S.: 7% Now, 57% In 2020, But Drivers 'Resist': Analyst
Start-stop systems have finally started to arrive on U.S. new cars in noticeable numbers. The systems, which simply turn off a car's engine when it's sitting stationary and then switch it back on as the driver's foot starts to lift off the brake, are now fitted to 7 percent of new cars sold in the...
John Voelcker -
Have Green-Car Sales Dropped This Year? Depends How You Define Them
More-efficient gasoline cars may be curtailing sales of hybrids, plug-ins, and other alternatives.
Stephen Edelstein -
Why Your Car Is A Truck, Under Federal Law, And What Makes It One
If you've got any plans to buy a 2015 Lexus NX 300h when it hits the U.S, you might be surprised to learn that it's not actually a car. According to the EPA, your new luxury crossover vehicle is nothing more than a light truck. It doesn't look like a truck. It doesn't drive like a truck. So why is...
Antony Ingram -
The auto industry came very near to the precipice in 2009, and it agreed to significant new regulations to enable it to step back from the brink. Now, it turns out that it's not only meeting, but actually beating, the required reductions in emissions. That means that, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, improvements in fleet average fuel economy are actually running ahead of schedule. DON'T MISS: 2015 Ford F-150 SFE: Highest Gas Mileage Model For Aluminum Pickup The good news comes from industry trade journal Ward's Auto, which notes that the auto industry is "ahead of the...
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Chrysler: Mild Hybrids Coming, Says Electric Cars 'Overblown By Media'
Yesterday's multi-hour presentation of the five-year plan for the combined Fiat Chrysler Automobiles was called "Chryslerpalooza" by local Detroit reporters who sat through it. The first green news was that Chrysler will build small numbers of plug-in hybrid minivans and large SUVs to meet emission...
John Voelcker -
Automakers Met Carbon-Emission Limits In 2012 With Room To Spare
The EPA reports 2012-model-year vehicles lowered CO2 emissions even further than required by law.
Stephen Edelstein -
Hybrids, Electrics Not Needed To Reach 54.5 MPG In 2025: Industry Exec
For some companies in the auto industry, building cars to hit a target of 54.5 mpg by 2025 may seem like a near-impossible task. But to others, the EPA's Corporate Average Fuel Economy targets agreed in 2011 aren't simply achievable by that date, but could be reached today--and with today's...
Antony Ingram -
U.S. Drivers Have Fewer Cars, Drive Them Less, Use Less Gas: Study
New-vehicle ownership, vehicle miles driven, and fuel consumption peaked in the mid-2000s, according to a study by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute.
Stephen Edelstein -
Complex CAFE Math: Gas Mileage Higher Than Predicted, Lower Than Needed
Fuel economy averages are exceeding analysts' expectations, but still aren't meeting set goals.
Stephen Edelstein