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The U.S. federal government made it official Wednesday – the NHTSA/EPA Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE,
program is getting tougher on light trucks. Automakers will have to increase average fuel economy ratings for light
trucks to about 24 mpg by the 2011 model year, a more than 10-percent increase from today’s standard. The standard for
cars remains unchanged at 27.5 mpg.
The automakers get a break, though. For the first time, the CAFE rules
include standards that vary by vehicle size, meaning that the standards for bigger trucks will be lower than for
smaller trucks. This helps out Ford, GM and Chrysler, where big trucks mean big profits.
Full details are
available at the NHTSA website, here.
[Source: NHTSA]