President Donald Trump on Saturday cancelled fuel economy standards put in place under the Biden administration, reversing rules that had pushed automakers toward electric vehicle production.
The move continues a back-and-forth pattern between administrations. Biden had previously undone Trump’s first-term rollback of Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, which govern the mileage vehicles must achieve to be sold to consumers. Those standards date to 1975 and have been revised repeatedly since.
In his first term, Trump lowered an Obama-era requirement of a five percent annual efficiency increase down to 1.5 percent per year. Biden reversed that change, pursuing what he called an effort to reduce carbon emissions and confront what he repeatedly described as an “existential threat” from climate change.
Under the standards Biden put in place, automakers would have had to raise the fuel efficiency of passenger cars and light trucks to roughly 50 miles per gallon by 2031, according to CNBC.
Trump announced the rollback on Truth Social, criticizing both Biden and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg by name. He wrote:
BIG DAY FOR AMERICAN AUTO WORKERS AND CAR BUYERS! I have just approved new Fuel Economy Standards that TERMINATE Sleepy Joe Biden and Pete Boot-EDGE-EDGE’s ridiculous EV Mandate. The Dumocrats cost our Great Auto Manufacturers $Billions, forced Americans into cars they never wanted, and wasted Billions on Chargers that were never built.
These new Standards will take the waste out of building cars in America. That means LOWER PRICES, saving families thousands on a new, beautiful, and safe car — Far better than the Environmental Monsters that we were building heretofore. Every Manufacturer, from General Motors to Ford to Stellantis, has called me wanting to build here, and now they can!
Trump also said manufacturers are investing more than $100 billion in domestic automobile production, and pledged that plants and jobs are returning to the Midwest and the South. The final details of the new standards are still pending.
Trump had promised during his 2024 campaign to rescind policies encouraging or incentivizing electric vehicle production.
Analysts say looser CAFE standards give both automakers and consumers more flexibility. CNBC reported that weaker fuel economy rules allow automakers to build more pickup trucks and SUVs, which carry higher profit margins than smaller cars but consume more fuel.
Electric vehicles have not reached the sales volumes that promoters once projected, and automakers have grown more cautious about betting heavily on them, though Tesla retains a loyal customer base and General Motors still plans to offer electric models.
