Surprised nobody's posted about this yet...Lots of news coverage on this today: "Obama Administration Finalizes New Fuel Economy Rules for Cars and Light Trucks" Green Car Advisor US, Canada finalize new auto fuel economy standards - Yahoo! News Final fuel economy regulations announced - Yahoo! Finance http://www.detnews.com/article/20100401/AUTO01/4010450/Feds-unveil-new-fuel-economy-rules http://www.ogj.com/index/article-di...interest-2/2010/04/new-us_cafe_standards.html Details at: CAFE | National Highway Traffic Safety Administration(NHTSA) | U.S. Department of Transportation I wish the news reports would actually talk about the difference between inflated CAFE numbers and what they'll actually see on their window sticker. "Fuel Economy: Doublespeak at its Best" Green Car Advisor talked about this long ago. "35 mpg" in CAFE speak is only 26 mpg combined. They ought to point out cars like the 2nd gen Prius already get "65.7 mpg" for CAFE purposes. The 3rd gen counts as "70.894 mpg" for CAFE purposes. All the data's at Download the Fuel Economy Database. Even the Altima Hybrid's at "46.7098 mpg". "35 mpg" sounds "great" to some or crazy (too high) to others. I remember many months ago one of my coworkers posted on his FB page complaining about it (he's political) saying it would lead to "put put" cars but he backed down when I educated him on CAFE on the above.
A surprisingly (for a car magazine) well written article on improving 'fleet' mileage from Road and Track. Add More Lightness - Car News - Road and Track There is a fine graph on how we got here, and one showing where we might have gone, on page 2.
Very good article. I enjoyed the mention of the Mini, which I see as the example of why Detroit still doesn't get it. Small cars do not have to be cheap and un-fun. Price out a Mini Cooper sometime at miniusa.com. I did. That's one of the reasons I have a Prius.
