US Cuts Fuel Economy Target to 34.9 MPG, Undoing Biden-Era Rules

The Transportation Department on Monday finalized a sweeping rollback of federal fuel economy standards, setting a fleetwide target of 34.9 miles per gallon for new cars and light trucks in model year 2031 and replacing Biden-era rules that would have required roughly 50 miles per gallon under the same compliance test.

The 892-page rule, which the department has titled “Freedom Means Affordable Cars,” revises Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards for model years 2022 through 2031. Under the new schedule, automakers must improve the efficiency of their passenger car and light truck fleets by up to 1 percent a year, a fraction of the annual increases the previous standards demanded.

“Instead of allowing manufacturers to design and produce vehicles they believe their customers will want and need, while spreading real-world fuel economy improvements across their fleets, the system has increasingly led manufacturers to try to fit square vehicle pegs in round classification holes to force the adoption of technologies that do not meet the demands of American families,” the agency wrote in the final rule.”