Energy

Fuel Economy Standards: There is No Tradeoff with Safety, Cost and Fleet Turnover

CFA has undertaken an analysis of the relationship between increased vehicle fuel efficiency and safety, vehicle cost, fleet turnover, and sales, given these issues are part of the Trump/Pruitt team’s stated rationale for freezing gradually increasing fuel efficiency requirements intended to carry through to 2025, at year 2020. The original requirement was a true consensus standard in which the car companies, consumers, environmentalists, unions, and the government came to agreement in 2011 with implementation starting in 2012.

In what amounts to a rollback of the well-considered, money-saving standards, the Trump/Pruitt team has said that they jeopardize safety, hamper sales and raise costs. However, this report finds that newer, more fuel efficient vehicles have: 1) more safety features, 2) continue a strong upward trend in sales, 3) provide cost savings that eliminate price increases, and, in fact, 4) sell better as their fuel efficiency increases.

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