The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Department of Transportation (DOT) have unveiled their joint proposal for stronger greenhouse gas pollution and fuel economy standards for model year 2017-2025 cars and light trucks.
The proposed CAFE standards will require an industry fleet-wide basis for cars and trucks combined of 40.1mpg by model year 2021 and 49.6mpg by 2025. The greenhouse gas standards require 163g/mile of CO2 in model year 2025. The 163g/mile limit is the equivalent of 54.5mpg – indicating that a portion of the improvements will be made through reductions in air conditioning leakage, which does not affect fuel economy.
It is an extension of the first phase of proposals brought into place by the Obama administration’s national programme. It raises fuel efficiency to 35.5mpg by 2016 – and results in an average CO2 level of 250g/mile. The two actions together will cut greenhouse gas emissions in half and nearly double the fuel economy of model year 2010 vehicles. In addition, the agencies state that the second phase of the programme will save around four billion barrels of oil and two billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the lifetimes of the model year 2017-2025 vehicles.
The next stage sees the proposals go to the public for comment – they can comment up to 60 days after it is published on the Federal Register. Meanwhile, California will issue its proposals for the model years on December 7 before finalising them in January.
