What U.S. Vehicle Fuel Economy Standards (if any) Should Be – Results of an NMA Online Survey, Part 1: NMA E-Newsletter #569


Throughout November, we posted an online survey designed to better understand the sentiment of NMA supporters toward government-imposed CAFE standards. The Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations established in 2012 mandated automakers to meet a fleetwide average of 54.5 miles per gallon by the vehicle model year 2025. That is quite a leap forward considering the 2019 criteria are 42.5 mpg for passenger cars and 30 mpg for light-duty trucks, including SUVs.

The US Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency caused a stir last year when the agencies proposed freezing the fleet standard at 37.0 mpg, the 2021 target, for the foreseeable future. Several states, led by California, are challenging that proposal.

The NMA survey included the opportunity for respondents to share their opinions in addition to answering the prepared questions. We will share many of those opinions in next week’s newsletter and will post many more on a special section of the Motorists.org site. First, though, here are the overall results of the questionnaire:

Although the NMA online survey on U.S. fuel economy standards is now closed, feel free to add your thoughts about government CAFE standards by emailing us at nma@motorists.org with the subject line “CAFE Standards.” Based on responses to the November survey, this is a topic of great interest to NMA readership, and therefore to us. Your feedback is an important component to the NMA’s position on the fuel economy issue.

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