Tomorrow, Trump Expected to Significantly Weaken Fuel Economy Rules

[CousinIT]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/climate/trump-fuel-economy-rules.html?smid=url-share

FREE read: https://archive.ph/FZEud

The Trump administration is expected to announce a major weakening of automaker fuel economy standards tomorrow. The result is likely to be US automakers pulling even further back from their electrification plans, and those same automakers falling even further behind Chinese automakers on EV tech.

[dem4decades]

1. Can't wait till he brings back lead in gas, and who needs seatbelts anyway.

[Disaffected]

2. Just further reason the world,

with the exception of Canada, refuses to buy American cars & trucks. And Trump complains about it.........

[MichMan]

3. If we taxed gasoline like they do in Germany, people would be demanding EV

Average cost in Germany is $7.35 per gallon.

[Old Crank]

5. That is pretty close.

Diesel is a bit cheaper, unlike in the US.

Note. I asked Google for German gas prices in US dollars by the gallon.
AI over view had approximately half of your number.
Then I hit another search and their AI overview was about double your number.

This is not the first time I have found sketchy math in AI overviews. So be aware.

[MichMan]

7. Some of the sources were in Euros not USD

[Old Crank]

8. either way

it wouldn't make for a 50% lower or 100% higher estimate from AI.

I thought it would be interesting to see how AI handled the conversion. I can do the math myself and have. I live in Euro land and know the cost somewhat. The quick and dirty high estimate in going with $2 per quart which gives oyou $8 per gallon.

[MichMan]

12. It's sold in litres which is slightly larger than a quart.

Had to convert from litres to gallons as well as from Euro to USD. Either way, the much higher taxes on fuel in Europe is the major reason why EV are more popular there than here.

No US politician is going to advocate for $7 per gallon gasoline. In fact when it gets close to 4 a gallon the oil companies are accused of "gouging". Politicians want cheap gas prices, but act surprised when people bypass EV for ICE vehicles that fit their needs/wants.

[Blue Full Moon]

4. The auto manufactures are upgrading lines.

Have built battery plants. Spent billions doing it. A large problem with trade to other countries is are products are below lowest standards. It's almost like tRump wants to destroy the country on behalf of Putin.

[CousinIT]

9. That seems like a hopeful reason SHitler's lowering of standards might have a limiting effect

...to some extent, at least.

[Old Crank]

6. Have to get more profit for the oil companies.

Higher demand means higher prices.

US cars won't be sold in Europe as they belch out more crud. Big cities are limiting vehicles which pollute more from entering city centers. Especially diesel engines.

Ford and GM do have Euro subsidiaries so they won't fall behind in technology immediately. In 2 to 4 years they will have to license Euro tech to develop and sell cars.

[Wanderlust988]

10. Ok, hear me out on this one folks...

Cars are shitty nowadays. Engines are failing early at higher number, even the mighty Toyota and Honda are having cars will failing engines. The reason? Plastic or aluminum parts which can't handle stress well. The reason? To meet strict gas economy rules. They are doing everything they can to reduce weight and it's killing quality. Nearly all car makers had better quality cars in the prior decades. This is the reason why.

Cars don't really burn gas like they did in the 70's or 80's. I'm personally ok with less stringent economy rules. You can proceed to yell...

[ProfessorGAC]

11. Seems Purely Symbolic

Are automakers going to retool all their plants & completely alter the marketing campaigns because of this?
It seems more a "red meat" move that doesn't really change anything. They can now claim "we dismantled the regulatory state" without actually achieving anything.

[Johonny]

13. Because Americans demand they pay more

For gas...

[MichMan]

14. GM's Barra Says Tough Auto Mileage Rules Risked Plant Shutdowns

(Bloomberg) -- General Motors Co. faced the prospect of needing to cut production of gasoline-fueled vehicles if electric-vehicle sales failed to grow as needed under ambitious fuel economy requirements enacted by President Joe Biden, company Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra said.

Fuel efficiency standards now being rolled back under President Donald Trump would have required a fleet average of about 50 miles per gallon by 2031. That effectively meant that most carmakers would have to get more than half of their sales from EVs by that time.

If those EV sales didn’t materialize — and the rules weren’t reduced by Biden in response — GM would have had to limit sales of gasoline-powered vehicles and possibly shut down some of its production, Barra said at the New York Times Dealbook conference in New York on Wednesday.

“We were going to have to start shutting down plants,” Barra said.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/gm-s-barra-says-tough-auto-mileage-rules-risked-plant-shutdowns/ar-AA1REiGC?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=LCTS&cvid=6930ca569a1e44d88d66e91dd8baccca&ei=11