NHTSA and White House work on defining CAFE's yearly fuel economy increases
35 mpg by 2020. Sounds simple, right? Well, it sounds simple unless you're an auto industry engineer who needs to help build a bunch of cars that achieve that number. But to the rest of us, those are some pretty easy-to-remember numbers. Still, how do we get from where we are today (a corporate average fleet economy of 27.5 mpg for cars) and that magical 35-by-2020 number? This is a problem that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the White House need to resolve, for now anyway.Last week, NHTSA sent a proposal for how annual fuel economy increases might work to the White House. According to the Detroit News, NHTSA has specified four years of increases, but the White House Office of Management and Budget now gets to review and possibly revise the proposal. NHTSA said it would like the internal discussions completed by April, at which time the public would get a chance to comment. A final decision will likely come by the end of 2008.
[Source: David Shepardson / Detroit News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mattypape 8:34AM (2/26/2008)
Its not that difficult to achieve, by 2020 america might have embraced diesels and hybrid more and then 35 mpg is beatable.
Arn't smaller cars (mini, smart ect..) now becoming more common and surely with future oil price rises more people will be prepared to go smaller and greener.
I dont see where the major problem is.
27.5 > 35 is only a jump of 7.5, by 2020 a hybrid hemi v8 will be getting at least 7.5 more that it does today, am i right?
Please tell me if im wrong.
Reply
mattypape 8:35AM (2/26/2008)
Its not that difficult to achieve, by 2020 america might have embraced diesels and hybrid more and then 35 mpg is beatable.
Arn't smaller cars (mini, smart ect..) now becoming more common and surely with future oil price rises more people will be prepared to go smaller and greener.
I dont see where the major problem is.
27.5 > 35 is only a jump of 7.5, by 2020 a hybrid hemi v8 will be getting at least 7.5 more that it does today, am i right?
Please tell me if im wrong.
Reply
Tim 8:44AM (2/26/2008)
Stop giving tax subsidies and direct tax payments to Big Oil and gas would go to $6.00/gal. Then consumers would DEMAND more fuel economy.
Let the FREE MARKET work!
Government screws-up EVERYTHING it touches, yet many want MORE?
What are these Leftists smoking and why can’t I legally buy some?
Reply
KarenRei 1:22PM (2/26/2008)
Tim: Enjoying that government-developed internet, I see?
Reply
Whopper 2:40PM (2/26/2008)
mattypape, technically it is possible to improve the average fuel economy by 27%, and even sooner than 2020. However there is one complex issue. The buying public has to be convinced that they want to purchase and drive the resulting vehicles. It is already a fact that US drivers are keeping cars longer, old cars are lasting longer and the price of new cars continues to climb. In spite of the attention to CAFE and global warming etc. the raw number of people willing to drive a Prius size vehicle is still small. Chrysler, the one US automaker closest to the brink, could bring out a small, high mpg, car and win a ton of sales; or join American Motors, Packard and Studebaker as a footnote in American automotive history.
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