The Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards are meant to set the bar for fuel economy by giving hard deadlines for improvements. The Obama administration had set the 2025 goal at 62 mpg, but seems to be slowly dialing that standard down, as reported by Green Car Insider.
Not long after setting the 62 mpg standard, the White House agreed that 56.2 might be a bit more realistic. Now, the administration is saying that 54.5 mpg is a more achievable goal meaning that cars will need to become about 5% more efficient each year between now and 2025.
More fuel efficient cars sound great on the surface, but what do the experts think? Here are a few of the points brought up by people on both sides of the issue.
- Save consumers over $6,000 per vehicle in gasoline costs over the vehicle’s lifetime.
- Drive the average price of a car up by $2,100 per year, making the average MSRP nearly $60,000 by 2025.
- Lower gasoline consumption and dependance on foreign oil.
- Eliminate jobs in the gasoline and oil industries.
- Lower greenhouse gases.
- Higher MSRP offset by savings at the pump.
Both arguments are compelling. No one wants to have to get a 60K Oregon auto loan just to buy a new car, though. As for the savings at the pump, when less gas is being sold, the oil companies are going to raise the price per gallon anyway, so what savings?