Obama unveils 35 mpg requirement at GM factory

During a visit to a General Motors factory in Ohio today, President Obama formally unveiled new fuel economy regulations governing cars produced through 2016.
 
The new rules include the first federal limits on carbon dioxide for cars. Limiting carbon dioxide directly limits how much fuel a car can burn. The standards will set different fuel economy targets for different sizes of vehicles and will set individual mpg targets for each automaker based on the mix of vehicles of different sizes that it produces.
 
Overall, the targets will require that passenger vehicles average 35.5 mpg by 2016, broken down to 39 mpg for cars and 30 mpg for pickups, minivans, and SUVs. By 2012 new cars and trucks have to average 29.2 mpg. This will require a 40 percent improvement over current cars.
 
Automakers had a part in drafting the standards, which constitute a compromise between older federal standards and those proposed by California, which 14 other states signed onto. General Motors issued a statement saying in part: “Greater consistency and certainty among a variety of regulations will help a new GM execute its current product plan centered on new technologies and more highly fuel efficient and quality cars and trucks.”
 
Automakers including GM, Ford, Chrysler, have said they cannot meet the new regulations without selling electric cars, and are rushing forward with plans for electric cars and plug-in hybrids.
 
Some analysts, however, are still suspicious of the automakers’ involvement in the rulemaking. Dan Becker, Director of the Safe Climate Campaign at the Center for Auto Safety, says, “The devil is in the details. Detroit’s lobbyists have done their best to riddle this decision with credits and other loopholes. We urge the Administration to close these loopholes or implement an automatic backstop to ensure that the president’s promise of 35.5 mpg average vehicles in 2016 will be kept.”
 
In a recent survey by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, more than 80 percent of Americans said fuel economy was the most important factor in choosing a new car. And used car buyers ranked it second behind price. (Read: "Survey: Car buyers look to buy American, sound off on concerns.")
 
At Consumer Reports, we place a high value on fuel economy and conduct our own independent, real-world fuel economy tests. Check out our fuel economy hub here.
 
We’ll keep you up to date on how the latest crop of fuel-efficient—and, when available, even electric cars—perform. 

—Eric Evarts

Learn about driving green in the Consumer Reports special fuel economy section.

Comments

[Cale]

That same survey cited very weak demand. "Only 9 percent of those interviewed are likely to buy a new car in the next year. That’s less than half of the percentage—19—of new-car buyers in a June 2008 survey, suggesting that the market may not rebound to those levels for some time."

It will be interesting to see if the demand for fuel economy continues when the economy (and the job market!) recovers. It is my opinion that drivers won't buy cars that trade strong performance for fuel economy if gas prices stay low.

[frazgo]

Wow tough numbers to meet, but the manufacturers I've spoken to are set to make it happen. I suspect we'll be in the same situation as the 80's when the manufacturers were focused on emissions and fuel economy...a lot of forgettable cars until technology catches up to bring on the performance while making the numbers.

Cale hits on an interesting phenom that I suspect will be born out. Until the economy improves and car buying increases we aren't going to see a big difference in the mix of the fleet on the nations highways in the short term. I suspect absent another cash for clunkers type program the shift to smaller cars won't happen in a tough economy on its own.

[BT Tires]

The new mandats are not bad. The sad reality is is that when the recession isover all of these people will forget about what happened and it will be back to business as usual. Sure the rules will be there but no one will look at the future until there is another major problem.