White House to Push Hike in Auto Fuel Tax?
President Trump reportedly told lawmakers in a meeting in the White House that he supports a 25-cent increase in the federal tax on gasoline at the pump in order to support his program to invest in new and repaired roads and bridges.
The tax currently stands at 18.4 cents a gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents for diesel. The tax , which supports the Federal Highway Trust fund, was last raised in 1993 and isn’t indexed to inflation. The fund has been suffering from losses in revenue because of improving auto fuel efficiency and has been at risk of becoming insolvent without repeated emergency Congressional funding.
“Sen. Tom Carper (Del.), the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, was in the meeting and confirmed in a statement that the president backed a 25-cent increase. “’President Trump came back to the idea of a 25 cent increase several times throughout the meeting,’ Carper said in a statement.
Fleet Manager Alert: Be Prepared for Rising Resale Values of Electric Vehicles
By Mark Boada, Senior Editor
As all fleet managers know, vehicle depreciation is their single biggest cost. So, it came as startling news recently when the British auto data research company Cap HPI reported that the resale prices of electric vehicles (EVs) in the United Kingdom have started to rise.
Specifically, the company said that some EV models have a resale value that is higher than their purchase price after one year and 10,000 miles on the road.
Quick But Careful Implementation at Shell Commercial Fleet
When it comes to implementation, Shell Commercial Fleet has a careful, proven process for new customers — one that gets cards into drivers’ hands quickly.
Customers Want More Cameras in Cars, Says Google Trends Report
According to findings released in Google’s 2018 Auto Trends Report, as the industry is focusing on autonomous driving, consumers are searching three times as much for automotive cameras.”
Aftermarket cameras for safety and security purposes rank high among US consumers. Front and rear dash cams, 360-degree cameras, mirror dash cams, and hidden dash cams topped Google’s findings.
The report compiled two years of Google search and YouTube data from over 1,000 users in the US, Germany, and Japan (the countries where most automakers are based). Much is driven by the way consumers search for aftermarket accessories for their car. “There’s this massive cultural trend of the camera,” says Yarden Horwitz, the trendspotting lead for Google says. “
Read the article at The Verge.
Trump’s Idea for Cutting the MPG Targets Doesn’t Make Sense
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has been eyeing ways of rolling back fuel economy standards set by his predecessor, most recently citing larger vehicles are safer.
Trump’s staff at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration suggests reducing fuel economy standards to 35.7 mpg by 2026, from 46.6 mpg under Obama’s targets.
"Consumers are buying large SUVs that get 15-20 mpg, as if gas is going to remain in the mid $2 range forever. The demand will shift to light-duty vehicles, and all the supposed safety gains from larger vehicles being considered by the Trump administration now will be an afterthought."
Read the article at Jalopnik.
