Automakers Back Trump's Cafe Cut To 34.9 Mpg By 2031

The industry has picked a side in the fight over federal fuel economy, and it is the side that lets everyone sell thirstier vehicles with less engineering overhead.

General Motors is among several big manufacturers backing the Trump administration in its legal fight over the move to ease federal fuel economy requirements. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, the Washington D.C. lobby group representing GM, Ford, Stellantis, Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, and others, backed the lower standards in a filing dated Nov. 2, according to Reuters, after a lawsuit challenged the revisions.

The rollback is substantial. Under the revised rules, the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard would drop to 34.9 mpg by 2031, down from the 50.4 mpg target set under former President Joe Biden. That is not a trim; it is a reversal.

The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates the weaker standards will cut compliance costs by an average of $1,289 per vehicle. The catch arrives at the pump: the same agency projects that, over the life of their vehicles, owners will pay more than $1,600 extra in fuel. The department also expects 121 billion more gallons of gasoline consumed across the country through 2050, a 4.6-percent increase over the stricter rules, along with a bump in new vehicle sales.

Michigan, California, and some two dozen additional states and local governments challenged the revisions in October. Part of their case holds that the administration ignored the millions of EVs on the road when setting the ceiling for achievable fuel economy. Environmental and consumer advocacy groups have filed separate challenges of their own.

In its filing with the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation leaned on predictability, warning that scrapping the weaker rules would throw off investment decisions, product development, and testing across hundreds of models headed to the American market. Translation: the automakers have already redrawn their product plans around the easier target and would prefer not to redraw them again.

The American Petroleum Institute also backed the new rules, arguing that standards should not effectively force consumers to "purchase vehicles that consume less fuel than they would otherwise choose."

[Images: AAA, Michael Strong, Stellantis]

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