Customers will hurt from 60 mpg claims vehicle dealers group

A trade group for auto dealers has voiced opposition to the government’s fuel standards initiative. The Obama administration has set a dauntingly high bar for fuel consumption standards. Currently, the goal is for all automakers to average 60 miles per gallon for their entire fleets by 2025. That goal for fuel consumption has been decried as unrealistic by a large trade group representing auto dealers. The group contends consumers will suffer for it.

No purpose for high gasoline requirements

A statement originated from the head of the National Automobile Dealers Association. This was, reports USA Today, on the Obama administrations’ initiative. By 2025, the White House hopes CAFÉ requirements may have gone up. They want them up to 60 miles per gallon. The automobile maker averages all of the gas mileage of the automobiles made without counting vehicles of a certain weight. This is what the CAFÉ, or Corporate Average Fuel economy, is. The National Automobile Dealers Association, Ed Tonkin, says the 60 miles per gallon standard is unrealistically high. He also points out that the amount of work that will have to be done to raise fuel economy to those requirements in 15 years will cost automakers a substantial amount of cash.

Paying from the consumers

Raising gasoline requirements like this will cost a lot of cash. This is because engineering may have to be paid for. The cost will end up all on the consumer. Considering the average shelf life of an automobile, it will put a further dent in car sales. Though sales are up for the auto industry over the year, sales are still technically down from more than a year ago.

Push for electrical cars

The policy appears to be a specific push coming from the White House. Hybrid and electrical vehicles seem to be the push. The Nissan Motors Leaf and Chevrolet Volt will be released soon. Being released is Leaf which is an all-electric vehicle. It could be the first one released within the U.S.. However, more used cars are on the road than new, so prohibitively expensive new cars would certainly backfire on producers.

Citations

USA Today

usatoday.com/money/autos/2010-10-22-dealers-fuel-economy_N.htm