New vehicles must average 40 mpg by 2026, up from 28 mpg

[Piotrsko]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Our hybrid doesn't even get over 45mpg.
Sounds like more virtue signaling.

Maybe. I remember once upon a time if your car wouldn't make 0 to 60 under 6 seconds you wouldn't buy it. My daughter's new "hotrod" takes 15.
a.3.banger GEO metro made 50? Vw dasher pickup did ditto?

[me and my metro]

I work for a large electric utility. Our corporate leaders mandate improved corporate fuel mileage every year. They have installed gps units that record speed and idle time. Then they coach drivers to not speed and to not idle the trucks. The trucks have to run to run the booms and buckets to work on the power poles. Idle time while using the booms does not count. Through the 2016 model year our fleet of this type of trucks were 100% Diesel powered. We have 25 small bucket trucks in our yard, the company owns thousands. The fuel mileage average is 9 mpg in our type of use. These are F550s that weigh 18,000 lbs.
Our corporate fathers in their infinite wisdom decided to “save money” by purchasing gasoline powered trucks from 2017-2020. These trucks average 4.5 mpg in our type of use. They did save $10,000 per truck but have paid and will pay many times over on fuel alone.
We buy Diesel trucks again.
Dreamers and realists really need to talk.

[freebeard]

They have installed gps units that record speed and idle time. Then they coach drivers to not speed and to not idle the trucks.

Was this before, during or after the switch to diesel and back to gas?

What a concept, torquing the nut behind the wheel.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

Maybe. I remember once upon a time if your car wouldn't make 0 to 60 under 6 seconds you wouldn't buy it. My daughter's new "hotrod" takes 15.
a.3.banger GEO metro made 50? Vw dasher pickup did ditto?

You kind of double-posted.

What car does she have?

[freebeard]

If it's a Dasher pickup I want to see it. Something like this?


3.bp.blogspot.com/-NMj9YODKzxA/UYAebgC-jFI/AAAAAAAAE80/7KaySd1RcYk/s1600/Photo3267.jpg

[JSH]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Can't happen. Vehicles have a 5 year production time frame, so whatever is coming in 2026 is already baked in. Writing something in some document and declaring it so doesn't make it so.

True but this isn't even a full return to the Obama era CAFE rules that automakers were already planning to meet. (Without Trump's temporary pause the 2025 target would have been 54.5 mpg.) Nobody really thought Trump's rollback would stand a legal challenge. Ford didn't cancel the Maverick and F-150 hybrid because Trump said fuel economy no longer mattered

It is also important to realize 49 mpg CAFE is not real. It is a theoretical number based on a theoretical mix of 50% cars and 50% light trucks. Last year 77% of vehicles sold in the USA were classified as light trucks.

It is also REALLY important to know how CAFE works today and has worked for more than a decade. There is no one CAFE. Every vehicle gets its own CAFE target based on vehicle type (car or light truck) and footprint (wheelbase x track). Then at the end of the year each automakers total fleet CAFE target is calculated based on the actual mix of cars they sold.

Then there is the fact that CAFE is based on the old unadjusted EPA fuel economy tests. The EPA combined MPG number printed on the window sticker is about 25% lower than CAFE for the same vehicle.

And finally - the 2015 Ford F-150 2.7L ecoboost met the 2025 CAFE standard for full-size trucks a decade early. When manufacturers exceed CAFE targets they book credits that they can use in later years or sell to other automakers.

Old CAFE rules for Light Trucks. A F-150 crew cab with a 6.5 foot bed has a footprint of 73.6 sq ft

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Autobahnschleicher

I mean, that shouldn't be hard to accomplish, even without hybrids.

Notice how Toyota's approach toward hybrids basically left no market share for manual transmissions on Euro-spec versions of some models, such as the current generations of the Corolla and Rav4 for instance.

At worst they might have to discontinue a few of the most gas guzzling engines or models to reach that as an average.

Convincing an American or Canadian redneck to favor a smaller engine is not as easy as trying the same with an European or even a Brazilian for instance.

[Isaac Zachary]

One thing I hear a lot is how "underpowered" fuel efficient cars are. There are people that make up reasons why they need a vehicle that can accelerate to 60mph in just a few seconds. If you mention "4 cylinder" they imediately label the vehicle as impractical.

Personally, I wouldn't mind a vehicle that takes a full minute to reach 60mph, as long as it also gets good fuel mileage.

[Piotrsko]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary

One thing I hear a lot is how "underpowered" fuel efficient cars are.

Personally, I wouldn't mind a vehicle that takes a full minute to reach 60mph, as long as it also gets good fuel mileage.

May I suggest a 50 passenger bus on a short, steep up hill on ramp at rush hour with staging lights then? At least people can see it, realize the problem, MAYBE do something.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary

One thing I hear a lot is how "underpowered" fuel efficient cars are. There are people that make up reasons why they need a vehicle that can accelerate to 60mph in just a few seconds. If you mention "4 cylinder" they imediately label the vehicle as impractical.

Personally, I wouldn't mind a vehicle that takes a full minute to reach 60mph, as long as it also gets good fuel mileage.

I'm not sure who you are talking to but 59% of light duty vehicles sold in the USA in 2020 had a 4 cylinder engine. It is by far the "normal" engine to have in a car today.