Ok, so the proposed new fuel economy standard for light trucks and SUV's is 30mpg by 2016. I want to understand how this works. For simplicity's sake let's say that Ford only sells Rangers and F-150's. Also for simplicity, assume the Ranger averages 35mpg and the F-150 averages 25mpg (the average of the two is therefore 30mpg). If Ford sells 300,000 F-150's, but only 100,000 Rangers, do they still meet the 30mpg standard or does CAFE also take into account how many they sell of each? I assume it does, or else they would just build and sell a couple of wonder trucks that get 100mpg at $1mil a piece to somebody in Hollywood, and just go about their business.

Also, if they don't meet the standard what kind of penalties could a company face?

I'm not trying to start any debate or arguments here, I would just like to better understand how CAFE works.

 

It's weighted by vehicle sales.

Jason

 

It also uses a different mileage estimate than the one on the window sticker, just to make this more complicated. The mileage is base on the actual EPA emissions certification test, which is higher than the sticker. So, a Ranger that has 27 highway listed on the sticker may have gotten 30 in the actual test, assuming the formula is a ten percent reduction. The original reason for this is that the general public was getting less mileage than the sticker in the real world, mostly because we tend to drive faster than the speed limit and use the A/C, which is off for the test.

Also, E85 capable vehicles get some kind of big "credit" for being able to run on E85, even if no E85 is available where the vehicle is sold.

The trick here, as in the past, is defining what is a "car" and what is a "truck". Lets say an AWD Fusion is jacked up a couple of inches and given a station wagon body. Is it an SUV "truck" under the law? I think Subaru does that, since Subies dont get good gas mileage for what they are.

Jim