US President Donald Trump’s administration is set to propose a significant rollback of fuel economy standards finalised by former president Joe Biden last year, its latest push to make it easier for carmakers to sell petrol-powered cars, sources told Reuters.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is expected to propose significantly reducing the fuel economy requirements for 2022-2031 model-year vehicles. Trump is set to announce the plan at a White House event on Wednesday that is expected to include executives from the three largest US carmakers, the sources said.
Earlier this year Trump signed legislation that ended fuel economy penalties for carmakers, and the NHTSA said they faced no fines dating back to the 2022 model year.
The White House and the NHTSA did not immediately comment.
In June, the NHTSA paved the way for looser US fuel economy standards by declaring Biden’s administration abused its authority by assuming high uptake of electric vehicles in calculating rules.
US transportation secretary Sean Duffy in January signed an order directing the NHTSA to rescind fuel economy standards issued under Biden for the 2022-2031 model years that had aimed to drastically reduce fuel use for cars and trucks.
Trump has taken steps to make it easier to sell petrol-powered vehicles and disincentivise EV production, including rescinding EV tax credits and barring California from banning the sale of traditional petrol-powered vehicles after 2035.
In June 2024, during the Biden administration, the NHTSA said it would hike corporate average fuel economy requirements to about 4.66l/100km by 2031, from 6l/100km, for light-duty vehicles. That rule did not increase requirements light trucks for 2027 and 2028 and required 2% increases from 2029 to 2031.
The agency last year said the rule for passenger cars and trucks would reduce petrol consumption by 242,266,354,176 litres and cut emissions by 659-million metric tons, reducing fuel costs with net benefits estimated at $35.2bn (R601,828,120,960) for drivers.
Last year, Chrysler-parent Stellantis paid $190.7m (R3,260,468,325) in civil penalties for failing to meet US fuel economy requirements for 2019 and 2020 after paying nearly $400m (R6,838,947,720) for penalties from 2016 through to 2019. GM paid $128.2m (R2,191,882,744) in such penalties for 2016 and 2017.
Reuters
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