Last week, the Trump administration proposed a rollback of Obama-era fuel economy and emission targets. The proposal would cap fuel economy targets around 35 mpg in 2020 and freeze them, while the regulations in place have fuel economy climbing to around 50 mpg in 2026.
The government hasn’t officially scrapped the regulations, but General Motors called for clarity and commonality in the process. GM President Dan Ammann said the sooner the automaker understands the regulations, the better off it will be, Automotive News reported on Friday.
“We’d like to get clarity as soon as we can, and we’d like to get commonality as soon as we can,” he said at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit in Detroit.
He also said GM will be heavily engaged with the Trump administration during discussions over fuel economy regulations.
GM appears more concerned with phasing out California’s right to set its own stricter fuel economy and emissions targets. The automaker has neither supported or backed away from the fuel economy freeze, though auto industry groups largely praised the proposal.
The proposed rollback does away with California’s federal waiver, which lets the California Air Resources Board sets more stringent standards. The regulations also call for a certain number of electric cars to be sold in the state, which leads to “compliance cars.”
“We’d really like to get it to one harmonized set of national standards,” Ammann said. GM has also gone on the record to say any reductions in federal fuel economy standards won’t affect its current plans to improve fuel economy and transition to an all-electric lineup in the long term.
Comments
Nobody seems to be able to hit the current goals without cheating anyway.
The future of this to benefit all is to come to an agreement for a fair, affordable and stable standard for the entire country.
This deal of everyone just doing their own thing cost us all money and often makes for more Rube Goldberg fixes to meet these regulations.
California has really gone off the deep end on things
Just because you can set standards as a goal it does not mean they can or will be met and too often if the are met it is at great cost and expense to the industry that is passed on to the consumer.
Progress needs to be made but also balanced with economic stability and consistency in mind.
Just being able to set standards does not make them happen. California alone has had to roll back EV car mandates several times as progress is just not there in spite of billions and billions being spent. Even today the EV’s strongest market is California at 5%.
Why do anti-America conservatives always love states’ rights unless that state is California?
We are Americans not labels that want America to be competitive and successful.
Much of the money spent to make CARB. happy could be used for to better develop better batteries. Billions are wasted on Carb orders.
It is not just car makers but the parts, Performance, lawn equipment companies and more.
The right thing for all is a of clean and economic balance that benefits all.
There is no one fix for everything. Somethings should be at state levels but when it comes to one of our largest and most important industries we should balance it out nationally.
It takes common sense but there is so little of that today.
The more restrictive emissions the more expensive the cost. Yet we still lack a cheapmor equal alternative at this point.
Vehicle prices have remained relatively stable with inflation taken into account. 2026 gives automakers more than enough time to improve average MPG. Consumers always want better gas mileage. Your scare tactics of saying the added cost will be passed to the consumer is *ullsh**. Take the Chevrolet Aveo and the Chevrolet Sonic. Natural predecessor of the ladder. Nearly identical MSRP, while the Sonic gets much better fuel economy, and much more standard features. A 2004 Chevy Silverado Extended CaB RWD cost $26,125 MSRP, while a new Crew CaB 2WD 2018 Silverado, would cost $34,000 today. Btw, I’ve checked inflation, and that’s exactly what that 2004 Silverado would have cost today. So the only segment that’s winning here is the sedan segment, while GM has kept relatively the same pricing structure across the board, regardless of fuel economy increases, more standard features. Your point is invalidated. Automakers have more than enough resources to pull this off.
Yet less people today can afford any new car than in past years.
The cost and repair of many of these new cars will prevent many from owning used models.
also more MPG means more $$$ in cost to the buyer and more stuff to go bad and expensive to fix. I bet a lot of the people who are calling for all this extra MPG don’t own a car or even drive so the extra cost does not bother them.
EVs are much cheaper to drive and require very little maintenance. Auto makers know, like GM said, that’s where we’re going. It is normal to take some time for new tech to come down in price and be profitable. That is when they will start offering SUVs and trucks that canibalize their profitable ICE vehicles.
“I bet a lot of the people who are calling for all this extra MPG don’t own a car”
I bet a lot of the people who are calling for lower MPG have their own gas station attached to their house.
Nobody, absolutely nobody, likes paying more then they have to for gasoline. Whether you like it or not, MPG rating are a deciding factor when buying a vehicle, and nobody wants to settle for a car with terrible MPG as it means the owner will be paying out more money each year just to drive it.
A higher MPG rating for a vehicle makes that vehicle car more attractive in the market, especially for mainstream ‘bread and butter’ vehicles.
Do you need to be reminded badly Detroit fumbled in the 70’s when the oil crisis hit and caught them unaware? Do you want GM to walk blindly into that mistake again because you personally believe higher MPG ratings today are keeping you from enjoying cars?
reply to this post when chevy sells as many EV as they do silverados. I have a 2018 4X4 silverado to get to our camp and it got 24 MPG for the 400 mile round trip. unless you drive lots of miles a year the insurance and deprecation will cost you more than the gasoline. both my grandkids have chevy traxs and the difference in price between the traxs and a bolt will buy a lot of gasoline
I never said a damn thing about EV’s, that’s your doing.
Also, if you’re only getting 24mpg for 400mi round, you just plain suck at driving.
Were you driving with the brake pedal pressed? Did you keep 4WD engaged the whole way there? Did you keep your revs high deliberately? Were you moving lead shot or pig iron to the camp?
I’ll bet you’ll tell me it was all uphill driving; uphill there and uphill back.
Your insurance argument is garbage too. I pay just over $600 a year for car insurance. If I was to get gas each week of a year with that amount, I’d only have $11.53 at each fill-up. That’s not enough to even bother starting the car, as $50 a week equals $2600 a year. I didn’t even pay that much for annual insurance when I was a teenager with my Camaro.
You’re still a damnable fool for thinking that MPG isn’t a sticking point for millions and millions of consumers.
if MPG were a big selling point the ford F150 and the chevy Silverado would not be the best selling vehicles in the USA. for the auto companies to average the obamas administration MPG they will need to sell a lot of EVs because people are not giving up their pickups and SUVs. if MPG are what buyers want why are passenger car sales falling off a cliff ??
MPG is a big selling point, even for the F150 and the Silverado. I point to the EcoBoost and EcoTec respectively. I even point to the new 2.7 I4 in the 2019 Silverado, an engine that will certainly have a suitable take-rate in the market for those who have fuel economy in mind when buying a full size truck.
Holy hell, are you even trying to put up a defense, because you’re folding over like a lawn chair.
Do you think every pickup has a ‘big honkin’ V8′ under the hood and that every full-size pickup is a jacked-up bro truck that will never be used for anything harder than a Starbucks drive through?
And why do you keep bringing up EV’s?
I bring up EV s because the auto companies can not reach that govt mandated MPG without them. in calif they need to sell so many money losing ZEV s to be able to sell the money makers PUs and SUVs. people who spend $50K on a PU do not care what it cost to fill the tank. these smaller engine PUs are because of the govt mandated MPG not because there is a demand for them. these smaller turbo charged engines only get better MPG on the EPAs dynos not on the road when used for work when they come up on turbo boost to make power to do the work.
I completely agree with you. I made a comment earlier, but it’s still pending moderation, (for unknown reason). When I look at cars, I look for ones that have reasonable or better than expected fuel mileage. No one, and absolutely know one, purchases a car, without wanting to know about fuel economy. Even truck owners hate paying to fill their truck up, and spending about $80. It’s not an enjoyable feeling. So when gas prices go up, to $4/gal nationwide, all of you will be suffering.
Many look at mpg but it is not the first priority for many,
I looked at it on my truck as reference but would have bought it anyways.
For what it is worth my city mpg is sitting at 20.1 and has been going up as it breaks in.
Never had it on the highway yet.
Many making the laws don’t drive.
This is simply Trump’s way of curbing California’s independence . As it is the State that really controls the emission standards by way of having the largest amount of vehicles on the road , Trumpism authority is ignored , heads will roll . California is Democrat strong , which according to Trump supporters is the biggest no no ! This little end around game , with the Republican toadies lined up to parrot his wishes will have a big long term effect , until the next election anyway ?