In 2020, Trump cut CAFE to 40 mpg. Now he’s cut it again to just 35 mpg.

The federal government’s war on fuel efficiency claimed another victim today. The Department of Transportation released a new rule for the country’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, which, as expected, discourage the very idea of economical vehicles. Among the changes is a rollback to fuel economy numbers not seen in more than a decade, below even the low standards implemented in 2020, the last time Trump was in power. The new goal is just 34.9 mpg by model year 2031.

This is nothing if not expected. When Sean Duffy was installed as Transportation secretary last January, he immediately announced that any fuel efficiency standards put in place under the Biden administration were dead and buried. Those rules had a slower ramp up than some might have liked but would have required automakers to sell many more electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.

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[–] 3 points 6 days ago (10 children)

Too late (I hope). At this point anyone buying a petro powered car is just an idiot. Though unfortunately there are about 33% of the public who have demonstrated pure idiocy already.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 days ago

    Pure ignorance right here. Sure, if you own a house you can install a wallbox or whatever and just charge at home. Maybe that's the case in the US where I guess home ownership is rather high. But if you don't own a home and live in a rented apartment, you most likely have to use public charging infrastructure. And if that doesn't exist or simply not enough charging stations are available, then you can't switch to an EV and have to continue to use an ICE car.

    Also, since EVs are rather new, they can be more costly, even used ones. So again, those with little money will have to stick with an ICE car for the forseeable future.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 days ago (5 children)

    Or they need to drive further than a battery allows... I assume this is post on you given "petro".

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  • [–] 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 child)

    This is definitely an issue. Because if you want a car with serious EV range it costs a lot more for that range, and infrastructure for EV is still a problem.

    Looking forward to the EREVs. If trump doesn’t do something to kill them, too.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 days ago

    EREVs add additional complexity, cost and emissions though. Battery tech is developing rapidly still, so EVs built 5 years from now will have more range and faster charging for less money.

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  • [–] 0 points 5 days ago (2 children)

    Most EVs on the market have ranges on par with gas cars. 300 or so miles.

    The only real difference is instead of 5 minutes to pay and fill up a gas tank, it take like 20 minutes to charge on a fast charger.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago (1 child)

    You're well underestimating range for gas... Most are going to be 400-500mi. Higher range EVs might tap 400... Most 250-350.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago

    You’re overestimating.

    The average vehicle in the US gets 29mpg, and the average tank size is about 13 gallons. That’s 377 miles per tank on the average vehicle. But that’s including small cars, while something like 70% of new cars sold are trucks and SUVs which average 19mpg and have average around 16 gallon tanks, which would put it at 304 miles per tank.

    I know when I had my truck, I averaged right around 306 miles on a tank. My EV now gets 370 miles per charge.

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