REPORT: Obama to announce new CAFE standards tomorrow, require 34 mpg standard
According to reports from both the New York Times and Politico, the Obama Administration plans to announce new CAFE regulations tomorrow that will finally reconcile both federal and state standards. The plan is expected to combine California's strict emission rules with the federal rule, raising the national fleet mileage to around 42 mpg for cars and approximately 26 mpg for light trucks by 2016 – an increase over the current standards of 27.5 mpg for cars and 24 mpg for trucks.
The administration set a self-imposed deadline of June 30 to grant California's request to impose the state's standard to the federal CAFÉ regulations, and according to the NYT, the auto industry isn't expected to challenge the new rules as they finally set both a definitive time table and a national standard. Politico is reporting that the Obama Administration sat down with several states and a number of domestic and foreign automakers to discuss the standard, including Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, BMW and others. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to attend the announcement on Tuesday, at which point all the hard details will be released.
[Sources: NYT, Politico | Image Source: Alex Wong/Getty]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
waiownsyou 2:03PM (5/18/2009)
Sweet. I'd love to see a 5 series get 42 mpg, but it's not gonna happen soon. If they pull it off though, that 50k car is going to be 100k.
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benzaholic 2:29PM (5/18/2009)
It exists outside the US already: the 520d
177HP, 258 Lb-ft, 0-100km/h in 8.3, Euro combined rating of around 46MPG (5.1 l/100km).
But we Americans apparently have a hard time accepting diesels or premium German four cylinders other than VWAG stuff.
zamafir 2:29PM (5/18/2009)
BMW already sells various 5 series TDis with over 40 and 50 mpg on highway (US figures)
http://bmw.co.uk/bmwuk/pricesandspecifications_technical_specs/0,,1156_2053__bs-NQ%3D%3D%40bb-TEk%3D%40bm-WlNCTw%3D%3D%40sit-bmwuk,00.html?tab=technicalSpec
We've been seeing it for years and years.
Sad car lover 2:35PM (5/18/2009)
Do you want good mileage? Do you want something reliable? How about a vast selection of choices of color, design, function, performance, etc? Do you want it to be both emissions free and not require extra strain on an electric power grid which causes emissions indirectly? Want lawmakers and sissy-environmentalists to get off your back? Perhaps something incredibly easy to maintain? Then get a bicycle.
We're all car lovers but since all cars are going to turn is fuel sipping sissy cars that don't have soul, don't have character, don't have a nice growl, etc. We should save ourselves from the destiny these lawmakers our taking our beloved hobby and just ride a bike. Save money on a daily basis on gas riding your bike around town rather than some bland dime-a-dozen Toyota and buy yourself a fun weekend car from our past to get your kicks..
Anyway, don't read into this that much.. just a rant
Rev 3:07PM (5/18/2009)
I bought a $2,000 bike for road biking. Ended up selling it pretty quickly after I got sick of reading/hearing the BS from holier-than-thou cyclists. I will never hop on a bike again (and I grew up BMX racing)...
I'll get a motorcycle if I need a gas-saver and hike for my exercise. You anti-car guys killed it for me.
Stay outta the road.
tjon 3:30PM (5/18/2009)
@benzaholic
You have to remember a gallon in Europe is bigger than a gallon in the United States
Taylor. Yes, Taylor. 3:49PM (5/18/2009)
@Sad car lover
I dunno, my Saturn Sky Redline gets 30MPG or better on the freeway, and it is fast and loud and looks amazing. Fuel economy doesn't have to mean sissy cars.
Yeah 50mpg is a whole different story from 30mpg, but 30 still isn't bad for today's technology for a fast car. We will get there, eventually.
Hell, the whitestar sedan is only supposed to be like $50k and it is still fast, so a 5 series with that tech has got to be similar.
And @Rev, not all cyclists are douche bags, don't let the opinions of others affect what you do. Ride what you want and don't worry about other people.
-Taylor
Michael 5:16PM (5/18/2009)
This is actually good news for auto manufacturers. CARB wanted a patchwork of emission standards, in which eighteen states would each have to meet the same corporate average fuel economy requirement... independently.
This "harmonization" of standards is much easier for manufacturers, because mpg/CO2
are averaged out among all states.
Platinum_Skeet 5:14PM (5/18/2009)
@sad car lover
Meh it's only going to be for new cars coming out and there have already been engine variations made time and time again that have gone over 100mpg off diesel and 50 mpg off regular using V8's. I don't see a problem with this, this should've happened long ago in the 70's when we were having a large gas crisis then...
PJ 5:17PM (5/18/2009)
Okay, the sky is not falling, folks.
Every CAFÉ uptick has been accompanied by the same “OMFG they’ll NEVER meet those numbers and we’ll all be riding bikes!” reaction since the program’s inception in 1978. Guess what? We’re still driving much faster, better cars than we were in 1978. Or in 1981, or in 1984, or in 1990, all years that CAFÉ regs tightened significantly (with accompanying screams from Brock Yates types about how the automobile was doomed).
Look at the trajectory the market is already on with hybrids, and diesels. Five years ago, you had your choice of two hybrid cars and five diesels. Now you have your choice of sixteen hybrids (with plug-ins on the way) and seven diesels. Not to mention the ten subcompacts, up from 2004’s choice of three. I don’t find it too far-fetched that by 2016, these segments will represent a large enough portion of total passenger-car sales to reach the 42 MPG average.
The 2 MPG light-truck increase, meanwhile, is a no-brainer over a seven-year interval. Plenty of models pick up that much in a single redesign—and remember, those light trucks account for more than 45% of new vehicle sales. Weighted 55/45 for the passenger car/light truck split, we’re talking about an average 9 MPG increase in new vehicles by 2016. I would *hope* we’d be doing that anyway by then.
Also, some might be unaware that automakers can “bank” CAFÉ credits from previous years and blow them on, say, a ZR-1, and that the only penalty for noncompliance is a fine—Porsche and BMW, for example, have been in noncompliance with CAFÉ for years, and simply pay their fines because their sales make it affordable. In other words, don’t expect your M3s, Camaros, Mustangs, and so forth to go away anytime soon (they’ve already survived 21 years of CAFÉ regs—in 1978, many pessimists gave them a year or two at most).
If you want to really help the enthusiast-car cause, stop bitching and moaning about hybrids and their hippy-dippy connotations and let the non-enthusiast masses happily pile into the things. It’ll help your company of choice offer the kinds of cars *you* want and still make their CAFÉ numbers.
Archane 2:04PM (5/18/2009)
A federally mandated air/efficiency act sounds like a move in the right direction. I'm sick and tired of the US not being able to house cars like the 70MPG Polo BlueMotion because it doesn't meet one states clean air acts. Our market is called the USDM, not the CDM (California Domestic Market), lol.
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no. 5:50PM (5/18/2009)
I'm also sick of Federal mandates and tax-evading czars. Ever read the Constitution before?
John Johnson 2:04PM (5/18/2009)
I hope Arnie rolls up in his Hummer and Obama in his 300.
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Archane 2:08PM (5/18/2009)
Hey, they may have crappy gas mileage, but thanks to the five or more cat-cons they have hooked up to those babies, they meet CARB emission rules. Don't you love our broken system?
John 2:15PM (5/18/2009)
He got rid of the 300 quite a while ago. They bought an Escape Hybrid when the new mode ( 2008 I think)l came out.
LoneWolf 2:35PM (5/18/2009)
It's about prestige. Do you think any political leader of a party of any country will show up in something lesser than a Audi, BMW or similar vehicles?
John Johnson 2:37PM (5/18/2009)
I'm cool with it, as long as they can make his limo-tank meet these standards.
Sean 3:59PM (5/18/2009)
It's a vehicle designed solely to keep the people inside of it alive, expecting it to meet that kind of standard is just idiotic. And no, it's not a double standard, it's not a car that's going to be driven to and from work by Joe Schmoe every day.
WPE80 2:12PM (5/18/2009)
Thank you Obama and Co. for making life miserable for motorists and even more impossible for carmakers by forcing through your arbitrary regulations to placate the tree huggers.
Good move.
They will just keep making restrictions worse and worse with no thoughts of relaxing other arbitrary numbers so that we can never receive the good economy cars from Europe, because then they'd be seen as weak by their voters.
I can't imagine what life must have been like when this country was governed by people that were actually interested in making the country a better place to live, and not just with getting elected again every 4 years.
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warren 2:36PM (5/18/2009)
This isn't about tree-huggers. This is about reducing the need to buy massive amounts of oil from the middle east. America will get poorer and poorer so long as we keep on shovelling countless billiions of dollars in their direction every year.