More details emerge on new fuel economy bill, no Porsche rule

Some further details have emerged about the compromise fuel economy bill that hammered out late Friday night. As we know they will continue to calculate averages for cars and trucks separately as well as calculating the separate averages for import and domestic fleets. The averages are sales weighted so selling more low mileage vehicles pulls down the average. What wasn't apparent before is that while the credits for flex-fuel vehicles (1.2 mpg per vehicle) are retained through 2014, they are due to be phased out after that time. Of course that is likely to change as these sorts of things usually do and we will probably be stuck with flex-fuel credits indefinitely.

Congressional leaders evidently also decided that Porsche is just like other car companies (although much more profitable!). The rule in the original Senate bill that would have classified low volume manufacturers as those that have a US market share of less than 0.4 percent has been dropped. That would have meant companies that sell less than about 64,000 cars (at current sales rates) would be exempt from paying fines for not meeting the standard. Porsche, which sells about 35,000 vehicles in the US out of about 100,000 worldwide had wanted this change retained in the final bill. The other automakers have declared that they will stop fighting and support passage of the bill as it now stands.