June 26, 2019—Last year, NHTSA and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency together proposed the Safer Affordable Fuel Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule to establish new fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards for model year 2021-26 passenger cars and light trucks. The rulemaking comes as American consumers are finding new vehicles less affordable.
The proposed rule also comes as the automotive industry is struggling to meet current fuel economy targets.
“Today, automakers are struggling to meet the existing standards. EPA’s latest ‘Trends Report’ showed that despite record fuel economy gains, all but three of the thirteen major automakers failed to meet their performance targets for the 2017 model year,” National Highway Traffic Safety administration deputy administrator Heidi King noted.
Consumers face diminishing returns as fuel economy standards rise.
“NHTSA and EPA are working together to ensure that this important rule will rely on the best possible engineering and economic information, data and science, and that we review the comments thoroughly in order to assure a final rule that is reasonable, appropriate, transparent, and consistent with the law given current facts and conditions,” King said.
