The Trump administration will soon announce much lower federal fuel-economy standards for new vehicles, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday in Michigan, Reuters reported.
Duffy did not release the final numbers. Automakers expect the rule to look like a December proposal from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That plan called for a fleetwide average of 34.5 miles per gallon by 2031, down from a 50.4 mpg target set under former President Joe Biden, according to Reuters.
“We are about to announce a common-sense fuel economy standard because we want Detroit to build cars that Americans want to buy — not cars that Democrats want Washington to build,” Duffy said, Reuters reported.
The change would not alter cars already on the road. It would reset what automakers must average across the new vehicles they sell. NHTSA estimated its December proposal would cut the cost of a new vehicle by about $930, Reuters said. The same analysis projected about 100 billion more gallons of fuel used through 2050, about $185 billion more in fuel spending, and roughly 5% more carbon dioxide emissions.
NHTSA also proposed rolling back the 2022 standard retroactively, then raising requirements by 0.25% to 0.5% a year through 2031. Biden-era rules raised required efficiency for cars by 8% a year in model years 2024 and 2025, 10% in 2026, and 2% a year from 2027 to 2031, Reuters reported. Automakers earn credits when they beat the standard; a lower 2022 baseline would make those credits easier to use later.
Congress in 2025 stopped collecting civil penalties when companies miss fuel-economy targets and ended the $7,500 federal tax credit for many electric-vehicle buyers, Reuters reported. Lawmakers also moved to block California’s authority to ban new gasoline cars by 2035. California is challenging that in court.
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