The US administration has proposed regulations that will require new American cars and trucks to attain an average of as much as 56.2 miles per [smaller US] gallon by 2025, roughly double the current level, requiring increases in fuel efficiency of nearly 5% a year from 2017 to 2025.
The standard would put domestic vehicle fuel efficiency on a par with that in Europe, China and Japan, saving consumers billions of dollars at the pump and creating for the first time a truly global automobile market, the New York Times said.
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Automakers say the standard is technically achievable but warn that it will cost billions of dollars to develop the vehicles, and they doubt that consumers will accept the smaller, lighter — and in some cases, more expensive — cars that result.
“We can build these vehicles,” Gloria Bergquist, vice president for public affairs at the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, told the paper. “The question is, will consumers buy them?”
The talks have heated up and will continue through the summer, with the proposed new standard expected in September and completed early next year after public hearings.
Automakers have asked the government to phase in the standard gradually, to allow credits for using certain technologies and fuels and to include a review period that could lower the target if it proves too costly, industry and government officials told the NYT. They are also seeking assurances that the government will help build the charging stations needed for electric and plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles, which will help to meet the new standard.
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By GlobalDataA senior administration official, insisting on anonymity because the negotiations were continuing, told the New York Times the 56.2 mpg goal represented the government’s opening bid, and might not be the final figure. The official said there was still some disagreement within the government, and the final outlines are far from certain.
The United States has the world’s most lenient vehicle emissions and mileage standards, lagging as much as 10mpg behind the rest of the world. Europe is expected to reach about 60mpg by 2020, the report noted.
The official added that arriving at a new mileage rule was particularly difficult because the auto industry has not yet fully recovered from the recession and the government was trying to force technological change more than a decade in the future.
“It is very challenging,” Mark Reuss, president of General Motors North America, said of the 56.2mpg goal at a press event in Detroit last week. “But it’s up to us as engineers to provide high value to the customer and support the environment.”
His firm is on the way. GM is already offering a European designed (and, initially, sourced) turbocharged 1.4-litre I4 in its Cruze model, reflecting the downsized but high power engine offerings now common in Europe.
Two years ago, when Chrysler and General Motors were clinging to life and the rest of the industry was slumping, carmakers agreed to aggressive new nationwide fuel economy standards covering the years 2012 to 2016. That deal, announced by President Obama in May 2009 as a dozen auto executives looked on, raised the domestic car and light truck fleet fuel economy to 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016.
Now, the government wants to extend that mandate nine years, but is confronting a much healthier and feistier industry, the report said.
Automakers are seeking a standard at the lower end of the range proposed by the government, citing studies that say that meeting the stiffer regulation will add thousands of dollars to the cost of a new vehicle and require a significant downsizing of vehicles in all classes.
They also want certainty that there will be a single national standard and that California will not be permitted to pursue a tougher standard on its own.
“To reach a 56mpg standard would mean a tremendous shift in the types of vehicles consumers buy,” the National Auto Dealers Association said in a statement. The group said that hybrids and plug-in electric vehicles now account for less than 3% of the domestic market, while meeting the new standard could require the fleet to be over 50% hybrid or electric, an assertion disputed by advocates of the new rule.
“The auto companies went along with the first round begrudgingly,” said Roland Hwang, transportation programme director at the Natural Resources Defence Council told the New York Times. “Two companies were in bankruptcy and the industry had lost credibility and a lot of political capital in Washington. Now they know a second round is going to happen, but their goal is to make it as weak as possible.”
Car companies could receive credit for using low-polluting air-conditioner refrigerants, building cars that can run mainly on biofuels, putting solar panels on cars to provide cooling power and other technological gimmicks.
“The companies want the lowest number and all the flexibility mechanisms underneath it,” said Brendan Bell, a transportation analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “What matters to us and to other environmentalists is how much oil does it save and how much pollution does it avoid. We need a strong number and a programme with integrity.”
The proposal is being developed by the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the California Air Resources Board, which has led the nation in setting tough standards.
Heather Zichal, a White House policy adviser on energy and environmental issues, told the NYT fuel economy standards were among the most effective ways to cut emissions and reduce oil imports, top priorities of the president.
“The administration’s commitment to fuel efficiency standards is a critical part of the president’s goal of decreasing oil imports by a third by 2025, helping to insulate American families from the ups and downs of gas prices, while also creating and saving jobs in the American auto industry,” Zichal said.
