Fuel Efficiency Standards Finalized.... (54.5 mpg U.S. CAFE regs for 2025)

[suspectnumber961]

Obama Administration Finalizes Fuel Efficiency Standards

The Obama Administration has finalized standards that would increase fuel economy to the equivalent of 54.5 mpg for cars and light-duty trucks by Model Year 2025.

When combined with previous standards, this will nearly double the fuel efficiency of those vehicles compared with new vehicles currently on the road, according to the administration. Officials say the standards would improve fuel economy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, saving consumers more than $1.7 trillion at the gas pump and reducing U.S. oil consumption by 12 billion barrels.

...

Major auto manufacturers are already developing advanced technologies that can significantly reduce fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions beyond the existing model year 2012-2016 standards, according to EPA. In addition, many technologies are currently available for automakers to meet the new standards, including advanced gasoline engines and transmissions, vehicle weight reduction, lower tire rolling resistance, improvements in aerodynamics, diesel engines, more efficient accessories, and improvements in air conditioning systems.

The program also includes targeted incentives to encourage early adoption and introduction into the marketplace of advanced technologies to dramatically improve vehicle performance, including:

Incentives for electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and fuel cells vehicles;

Incentives for hybrid technologies for large pickups and for other technologies that achieve high fuel economy levels on large pickups;

Incentives for natural gas vehicles;

Credits for technologies with potential to achieve real-world greenhouse gas reductions and fuel economy improvements that are not captured by the standards test procedures.

[oil pan 4]

Don't most of the car guys on here laugh at 54mpg.
I thought the new prius gets fairly close to that.

The problem with the hybrid pickup concept is they dont really do any better on the highway than their gas counter parts. The GM hybrids do about 2mpg better on the highway, but they also come standard with LRR tires, an air dam or chin spoiler, come with a standard bed cover and possibly grill shutters. So it ain't the "hybrid technology" getting those +2mpg.

And I thought you were all for the banning of natural gas fracking?
Now you want to power cars off it.

[Big Dave]

Did the government consult consumers?

[UFO]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

And I thought you were all for the banning of natural gas fracking?
Now you want to power cars off it.

Who?

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

The problem with the hybrid pickup concept is they dont really do any better on the highway than their gas counter parts.

No, the trouble with hybrid pickup trucks is that there aren't any out there that you can buy.
10 years back I saw the winner of the future truck competition, 55mpg out of a hybrid Ford Explorer, requirements for it were that it still have the advertised cargo space, towing capacity, seating capacity and they got points for using off the shelf parts and for showing that it could be built and sold at a reasonable price.

[Big Dave]

54 MPG means the average car is going to be what the general public calls clown cars.

Expect backlash.

We will not see diesels even for a 54 MPG standard as long as Tier II Bin 5 is in place. Tier II Bin 5 crushed the operational economy of diesels in US-spec engines.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by Ryland

No, the trouble with hybrid pickup trucks is that there aren't any out there that you can buy.
10 years back I saw the winner of the future truck competition, 55mpg out of a hybrid Ford Explorer, requirements for it were that it still have the advertised cargo space, towing capacity, seating capacity and they got points for using off the shelf parts and for showing that it could be built and sold at a reasonable price.

Ok it looks like the last YM for a GM hybrid truck is YM2011. I thought they were still in production.
Go to Compare New and Used Hybrid Cars, Trucks and SUVs enter say 2006 through 2013 and select chevy, cadillac and GMC. For vehicle class select truck and SUV.
I guess they dont sell them for YM2012 and since they werent selling hardly any.

Look at the highway MPG on those hybrid trucks and SUVs, they all SUCK!

If they got 55mpg out of a hybrid modded ford explorer they must have been hypermiling it for all it was worth.

[Daox]

54.5 mpg CAFE doesn't mean 54.5 mpg EPA. It means 54.5 mpg based off the OLD 1970s testing. Since then the EPA has udpated its test multiple times to increase accuracy for the 'normal' driver. Each time it has updated things the rated mpg of vehicles has decreased. So, 54.5 mpg is more like a modern EPA rating of ~40 mpg.

It also doesn't mean EVERYTHING needs to get 54.5 mpg. CAFE is corperate average fuel economy which means the AVERAGE fuel economy of any one brand must be 54.5 mpg.

They also have over a decade to accomplish this. EVs will be large portion of tipping the scales to allow light truck sales.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by UFO

Who?

Never mind I found the post, it was stillsearching that was "hopefull" fracking would be banned soon.

[MetroMPG]

This bears repeating:

Originally Posted by Daox

54.5 mpg CAFE doesn't mean 54.5 mpg EPA. It means 54.5 mpg based off the OLD 1970s testing. [...] So, 54.5 mpg by current tests is more like a modern EPA rating of ~40 mpg