CAFE corporate average fuel economy ... works?
 

in 2022 the Biden administration’s Transportation Department came and endorsed CAFE forcefully, “ [it] released a new fuel economy rule to prevent 5.5 trillion pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere and save billions of gallons of gas by midcentury.


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How much of that is due to EVs becoming more common? Probably not much, yet. I think the USA is still only ~5% EV.

The difference in CO2 emissions between forcing a policy, and not, would get lost "in the noise".

I'm not saying we shouldn't strive towards efficiency, only that "saving" something only makes it affordable elsewhere.

So kudos for demanding we go in the direction we're already headed. Maybe he could also pass en executive order for me to put my pants on one leg at a time while his genius creativity is dialed up to eleven.

Welcome to the forum.

Corporate-government alignment works?

What may or may not happen in 2022 is not supported by the chart. It ends in 2020.

0-60 took a hit in 1978, but has risen more consistently since.

The 2020 target was missed. The 1982-2005 downturn appears unrelated to 0-60 performance.

I'm surprised to see 0-60 was so terrible back in the day. I'd rather walk... Then again I do recall treating the throttle on the Beatle as an on/off switch. Had plenty of fun in that vehicle.

"My uncle liked to drive comfortably, both feet flat on the floor." :)

Policy Matters...
 

THanks for the welcome and the comment.
It seems like the masses are already moving and this policy just joins the front of the parade of emission reductions but, twas not always so.
Look at the Reagan Years where you see declining MPG as they punted on CAFE

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It took till 2007 when Congress and President George W Bush passed and signed the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, to start raising the fuel economy again.

Needs the "Act of Congress" to move the masses. Most of whom "masses" do not have the wisdom evident in this forum... Seriously.
JDaly

Andy, not sure how much of this is due to EVs. This chart uses the "Explore the automotive trends data. (2022, November 15). US EPA. " data set. I assume it includes hybrids and a few ev's but it covers only to 2020.
Good question.
JDaly

Yes. Good points on the lack of 2022 data. Just a point on the 0-60 performance line. I added that to indicate that automakers continued to add performance improvements even as trimming emissions and improving MPG. They are not inter-causal.
THanks,
JDaly

Redpoint, yes it seems that the current policy just "gets in front of a parade that is already moving" / mpg improvement. But note that when Reagan and his team jettisoned CAFE from 1982 forward, mpg that had been improving faltered and reversed (see below). Just sayin policy matters.

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