NHTSA announces new CAFE standards through 2015
Filed under: Hybrids/Alternative, Government/Legal, Green


Last December, President Bush signed a new energy bill into law that requires automakers to achieve a Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard of 35 mpg by 2020. This historic stiffening of CAFE standards set a lofty goal, but left plenty of time to get there and new standards of any kind won't begin until the 2011 model year. Today, which happens to be Earth Day, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters laid out the first set of new CAFE rules that will be implemented for passenger vehicles and light trucks from 2011 through 2015.

The first step on the path to 35 mpg by 2020 will be increases of 4.5% in CAFE standards for passenger vehicles and light trucks over the five-year period spanning 2011 and 2015. This means that standards for passenger vehicles will rise from the current 27.5 mpg to 35.7 mpg by 2015, while light trucks will go from 23.5 mpg to 28.6 mpg. The NHTSA claims the new interim standards will save 55 billion gallons of gasoline and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 521 million metric tons. They also claim that drivers will save $100 billion in fuel costs over the lifetime of vehicles that fall under the rule.

We decided to reach out to the Big 3 automakers in the U.S. to ask for a comment, and both Ford and Chrysler are keeping mum until they've had a chance to read over the new rules. General Motors, meanwhile, already released a statement reiterating what it said last December, which is that it will meet the new standards despite how tough they are.

Automakers are also able to earn credits when they happen to exceed the CAFE standards, and can either bank those for a time when they won't meet them or even sell the credits to other automakers at a cost below what the fine would be for not meeting the standards. We've heard rumors, for instance, that Honda's sitting on a healthy pile of credits.

Now that we have an actual CAFE target for the auto industry to hit in the near term, expect to see a flurry of activity from automakers. Lithium-ion plug-in hybrids, series hybrids, diesels and all-electric cars will likely be the new technologies that help the industry meet these new interim CAFE standards by 2015, and the first change set for 2011 is not far away at all.

 

Got this from MT It only part of the article as the rest was IMO was just rehash:

For the 2007 model year, cars sold in the U.S. averaged 31.3 mpg and light trucks averaged 23.1 mpg. Keep in mind that these numbers reflect a complex equation that takes a car or truck's "footprint" into account. Based on this equation, DOT says, Porsche will have to average 41.3 mpg by 2015 without buying another manufacturer's credits, or paying a gas guzzler tax (unless it can by then count the fuel economy of every Volkswagen AG model sold in the U.S.), whereas newly independent Jaguar/Land Rover will have a lower number to achieve for cars, because Jaguars make a larger "footprint."

This is to prevent an automaker from simply switching to small cars. Even Honda and Volkswagen, traditionally the automakers with the highest fleet averages, will have to show technology improvements to get better fuel mileage from Fits and Golfs. Because of their mix of vehicles, Ford Motor Company will have to reach higher numbers than Toyota/Lexus/Scion. Those numbers (which still assume Jaguar/LR as part of FoMoCo):

FORD
MY 2011: 31.0 mpg
MY 2012: 32.7 mpg
MY 2013: 33.7 mpg
MY 2014: 34.5 mpg
MY 2015: 35.5 mpg

TOYOTA
MY 2011: 30.1 mpg
MY 2012: 31.5 mpg
MY 2013: 32.7 mpg
MY 2014: 33.6 mpg
MY 2015: 34.6 mpg

Those are eye-opening numbers, because it means, on the face of it, that the average Toyota has a bigger "footprint" than the average Ford.

 

i wasnt all that concerned about CAFE...then i did some research, and im even less concerned. CAFE is a complete joke to the american and asian automakers.

this is all crap...put out there by the media to scare people. companies are fined for not meeting the requirements, but do you know how much has been paid in fines since CAFE started in the 70s? something like 500 million dollars. do you know how much of that 500 million has been from american companies?


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My thoughts as well. This is nothing other than a "don't blame me, now get off my back" approach that the Government is doing to try to keep the blame off of themselves for the cost of fuel. The fact is the primary blame for the situation we are in with rising fuel prices (which IS the real issue, not the average fuel economy) belongs to the Government trying to get involved with something that is NOT their concern nor their expertise for that matter (I'm beginning to think that their expertise is how to take a mild problem and how to make it into a full blown disaster).