LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The Trump administration is rolling back the fuel efficiency standards for new cars that will do away with another Biden-era climate effort. In a few minutes, we'll hear from the secretary of transportation during the Biden administration, Pete Buttigieg. We start with the details.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Here to talk about it is NPR's cars and energy reporter Willa Rubin. Willa, good morning.
WILLA RUBIN, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: OK. So what is changing?
RUBIN: So, Steve, we're talking about what are known as the CAFE standards. These are not the standards for your morning coffee.
INSKEEP: Thank goodness.
RUBIN: (Laughter) They are the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards - bit different.
INSKEEP: Got it.
RUBIN: Yeah. So these are government regulations that tell carmakers how fuel-efficient their vehicles should be on average. So a car company might make electric vehicles, but they might also make big trucks, maybe some are hybrids. The point of these standards is to set a target for how fuel efficient all those vehicles are taken together on average. Now, there have been CAFE standards for about 50 years, but different presidential administrations can give carmakers exact goals. And the latest here is that the Trump administration is lowering the goals that the Biden administration set, which were pretty high.
INSKEEP: So how high were they and how low are they going?
RUBIN: Well, the standard is that over the next five years, new car fleets have to average just under 35 miles to the gallon. Under Biden, that number was just over 50. And on average, fuel efficiency across a fleet now only has to go up by up to 1% a year. That's down from about 2% under Biden.
INSKEEP: I got to tell you, 50 miles to the gallon actually sounds kind of cool. So why does the Trump administration back off of that?
RUBIN: Well, Steve, they say they're doing this to save car buyers money. They say that fuel efficiency technology is expensive. And in their announcement, the administration said that these new standards will trim about $1,300 off the sticker price of new cars. In statements to NPR, automakers praise the move. They say that the new standards are more in line with market realities, meaning EV sales are still a minority of new car sales in the U.S.
INSKEEP: OK.
RUBIN: But critics say just looking at the sticker price ignores some of the longer-term expenses that come with being a car owner. I spoke with Sue Helper. She's an economist at Case Western Reserve University. She says better fuel efficiency is good for drivers. She says it saves some money at the pump, it saves them some maintenance expenses and that it's an advantage when companies have to continuously work towards this common goal.
SUE HELPER: By getting rid of this regulation, you get rid of this pressure or this incentive or this coordination among companies to work on this problem that consumers face.
RUBIN: And right now, of course, consumers are facing high costs for gasoline, and those aren't the only costs associated with lower fuel efficiency.
INSKEEP: What do you mean?
RUBIN: Well, so there's pollution. There is the resulting cost to people's health. There's the environment - more global warming. That list goes on. There's also potentially a cost to the automakers. You know, these standards don't encourage them to continue innovating in electric vehicles, in more fuel-efficient cars. And that risks them getting left behind globally because, of course, American carmakers do not sell exclusively in the U.S.
INSKEEP: That's absolutely true. And, of course, China has been producing millions of electric vehicles that are cheap.
RUBIN: Exactly. And just to give you a sense of how big the electric car market is getting globally, last year, 30% of cars in Europe were electric. More than half of vehicles sold in China were electric, according to the International Energy Agency. Of course, there's also the risk that the standards could change again. You know, carmakers - they plan their fleets, their factories, their production years in advance. For the auto industry, the signals, shall we say, are a bit mixed.
INSKEEP: NPR's Willa Rubin. Thanks so much.
RUBIN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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