The auto industry is waiting for a new report from federal regulators that will be used to determine whether stringent gas mileage rules requiring them to produce car and truck fleets that average more than 50 miles per gallon by 2025 will stay in place.
The new rules, known as Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, are beginning to take effect with the 2017 model year.
They call for ramping up from the current fleet-wide average of about 34 miles per gallon for cars and trucks that were required in 2016 to an eventual goal of about 50 miles per gallon by 2025.
The increase, which some automakers have said might be too ambitious, starts with a rise to an average of over 35 miles per gallon for the 2017 models that already are being rolled out.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the California Air Resources Board are preparing to release a draft of a technical report this month that will be used to determine the feasibility of the final four years of the fuel economy rule.
Alan Baum, principal of the Baum and Associates automotive research consultancy firm in West Bloomfield Township, said automakers are on the hook for the mileage requirements until the end of 2021 no matter what.
He said they will have an opportunity to push for lower mandates when regulators conduct a mid-term review in 2018 of the rules for the model years that will occur between 2022 and 2025.
“The regulations are in place without any questions until 2021,” he said.
The mileage rules, which were put in place by the Obama administration in 2012, call for automakers to achieve a fleetwide average mileage rate of more than 36 miles per gallon for cars and trucks in 2018.
The standard then increases to more than 37 miles per gallon in 2019 and nearly 39 miles per gallon in 2020, which is before automakers will have a chance to weigh in on the need for any course corrections. By 2021, automakers will be required to hit a combined average of 41 miles per gallon for their cars and trucks.
If the rules for model years after 2021 are left in place when they come up for review in 2018, the emission standard will increase to about 43 miles per gallon combined for cars and trucks in 2022, before jumping to about 45 miles per gallon in 2023. The final years of the mandate will see a required average of about 47 miles per gallon in 2024, and finally more than 55 miles per gallon for cars and about 40 miles per gallon for trucks in 2025.
Auto companies that do not meet the higher emission standards will be fined $5.50 for each tenth of a mile-per-gallon their average fuel economy falls short of the standard for a model year, multiplied by the total volume of vehicles that are in the fleet that fails to meet the new requirements.
Read more of the original article in The Detroit News.
