WASHINGTON — While Detroit’s automakers themselves are staying publicly mum so far on what they think of a 56-miles-per-gallon fuel economy target by 2025 floated by the White House last week, other interest groups are already weighing in.
Bailey Wood, a spokesman for the National Automobile
Dealers Association, said that requiring an average of 56 mpg for cars and light trucks would “mean a tremendous shift in the types of vehicles consumers would be able to buy,” and could price some consumers out of the market for smaller cars.
“To meet that goal, 55 percent of market share would be hybrid and plug-in electric vehicles, according to the Center for Automotive Research,” Wood said in a statement, noting that such vehicles made up less than 3 percent of what U.S. consumers bought last year.
“Overly ambitious standards set 14 years in the future risk severe economic harm if consumer wants and needs are not met,” Wood said.
However, some environmental groups — who had been pushing for an even higher target of more than 60 mpg by 2025, welcomed the idea of a 56-mpg requirement and said a higher target would help, not hurt, consumers’ wallets.
“Fifty-six mpg, while not as ambitious as the level we have been advocating, is a doubling in fuel efficiency from today’s average passenger vehicle and would cut drivers’ fuel bills in half,” said Roland Hwang, transportation program director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, in a statement.
The White House is ramping up its discussions with automakers and elected officials regarding fuel economy standards for 2017-25, and according to three sources familiar with the matter floated a 56-mpg target last week in separate meetings with each of the Detroit Three automakers.
Last week also saw a group of Republicans — former Environmental Protection Agency administrators, governors and members of Congress — publicly throw their support behind an “aggressive” fuel economy target of more than 60 mpg, citing the need to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil and ensure a clean environment.
Federal regulators are set to announce the proposed 2017-25 rules for cars and light trucks in September, and are also coordinating their negotiations with California regulators, who have indicated they may go their own way if the federal target is not high enough.
That’s a situation automakers desperately want to avoid. They are pushing hard for one national standard that would allow them to make vehicles that would comply with fuel economy requirements nationwide.
So far, the Detroit Three have declined to weigh in publicly on the White House’s initial suggestion, but say they seek a requirement that will keep them competitive.
Ford Motor Co. said its “discussions with the administration are ongoing and productive,” and that the company supported a “national program that is data-driven and factors in the impact of this rule-making on jobs, the economy, consumers and safety” — but declined to comment specifically on 56 miles per gallon.
General Motors Co. spokesman Greg Martin said GM was “committed to sticking with a successful formula” and would “continue to work with all stakeholders toward a strong national standard that moves the needle but doesn’t wreck a customer’s bank account or the industry’s resurgence in the process.”
Chrysler Group LLC has so far declined to comment on the matter.
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