The Trump administration has rolled back fuel economy standards to 2014 levels, reversing environmental progress and potentially hindering automotive innovation amid rising transportation costs.
<p>The federal government’s war on fuel efficiency claimed another victim today. The Department of Transportation released a new rule for the country’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, which, as expected, discourage the very idea of economical vehicles. Among the changes is a rollback to fuel economy numbers not seen in more than a decade, below <a href="https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/03/heres-the-trump-admins-pathetic-new-fuel-efficiency-rule-for-2026/">even the low standards implemented in 2020</a>, the last time President Trump was in power. The new goal is just 34.9 mpg by model year 2031.</p>
<p>This is nothing if not expected. When Sean Duffy was installed as Transportation secretary last January, <a href="https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/01/trumps-new-head-of-dot-rips-up-us-fuel-efficiency-regulations/">he immediately announced</a> that any fuel efficiency standards put in place under the Biden administration were dead and buried. Those rules had <a href="https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/03/new-epa-doe-fuel-regs-give-automakers-longer-to-reduce-co2-emissions/">a slower ramp up</a> than some might have liked but would have required automakers to sell many more electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.</p>
<p>Now, we may have the possibility of some OEMs dropping their EVs and PHEVs entirely. The <a href="https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/2026-09/CAFE%20SAFE%20MY%202022-2031%20Final%20FRN.pdf">notice of final rulemaking</a> criticizes the idea of emissions credits and blames them for automakers not investing in cleaner engine technology, and from model year 2028, such credits are a thing of the past. And plug-in vehicles will now no longer be included in an automaker’s fleet average; under previous rules an EV or PHEV could have a CAFE rating <a href="https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/04/automakers-may-have-to-sell-4x-more-evs-under-new-proposed-cafe-rules/">of hundreds of mpg</a>.</p><p><a href="https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/09/trump-cuts-fuel-economy-standards-back-to-2014-levels/">Read full article</a></p>
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# Trump cuts fuel economy standards back to 2014 levels
Source: [https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/09/trump-cuts-fuel-economy-standards-back-to-2014-levels/](https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/09/trump-cuts-fuel-economy-standards-back-to-2014-levels/)
One perhaps not\-terrible change in the new rule is a tightening of the light truck loophole\. Passenger cars and light trucks have been classified separately under CAFE, with weaker standards for the latter\. That encouraged car companies to redesign their crossovers such that they could be categorized as light trucks, with the end result that our roads are full of SUVs that are bigger and thirstier than they should be\.
Should these regulations still be in effect by model year 2030, they will “change classification criteria starting in model year 2030 to reflect each vehicle’s intended use accurately, flipping the current fleet mix of approximately 70 \[percent\] light trucks and 30 \[percent\] passenger vehicles to around 70 \[percent\] passenger cars and 30 \[percent\] light trucks,” according to the Department of Transportation\.
## We could have had a better world
The meagre standard of 34\.9 mpg seems even more pathetic in light of history\.[In 2012](https://arstechnica.com/features/2012/10/the-road-ahead-how-well-get-to-54-5-mpg-by-2025/), the Obama administration published new CAFE standards that set us on a road to 54 mpg by 2025\. Obviously, we did not arrive at that destination, due to constant assaults on fuel efficiency[under the first Trump administration](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/04/trump-epa-sidelined-its-own-scientists-when-rewriting-fuel-economy-rules/)\. That government finally published new CAFE standards in 2020, cutting them from 46\.7 mpg in model year 2026 to 40\.4 mpg\.
That damage[was slowly undone](https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/03/new-epa-doe-fuel-regs-give-automakers-longer-to-reduce-co2-emissions/)under the Biden administration, which also changed rules to encourage smaller and lighter vehicles\. Now, it seems we go backward just as fuel prices are climbing higher than Americans have seen before\.
“The CAFE program was created in the 1970s in response to price shocks at the pump that raised costs for every American\. Lowering these standards now, when so many families are already struggling with rising transportation costs, will only make things harder for them\. At the same time, lowering the bar for innovation risks a future where the global auto market leaves American industry behind,” said Albert Gore, executive director of the Zero Emissions Transportation Association\.
The US Department of Transportation has finalized plans to weaken fuel efficiency standards, setting a fleet average of 34.9 miles per gallon by 2031 instead of the Biden-era target of 50.4 mpg, drawing criticism from environmental and health groups despite claims of cost savings.
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