The Alliance for Automotive Innovation said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) proposal was unreasonable and requested significant revisions.
The industry group argued the plan would boost average vehicle prices by $3,000 by 2032 because of penalties automakers would face for not being in compliance, adding the figure “exceeds reason and will increase costs to the American consumer with absolutely no environmental or fuel savings benefits.”
NHTSA in July proposed boosting requirements by 2% per year for passenger cars and 4% per year for pickup trucks and SUVs from 2027 through 2032, resulting in a fleet-wide average fuel efficiency of 58 miles (93 km) per gallon.
The American Automotive Policy Council, a group representing the Detroit Three automakers, separately on Monday urged NHTSA to halve its proposed fuel economy increases to 2% annually for trucks, saying the proposal “would disproportionately impact the truck fleet.”
So what they are saying is the penalties need to be higher because they are still small enough that the companies think they should eat them rather than improve efficiency.
From my perspective, these don’t even go far enough, but improving efficiency is more important than the survival of the automakers.
Not only are the penalties small enough to eat, but it’s small enough to kick it down to the consumers.
That boost in price is minimal compared to how much they raised prices in the last 2 years.