USA · updated 1h ago · 2 min read
Donald Trump Approves New Fuel Economy Standards, Rolling Back Biden’s EV Mandate
Trump approved new fuel economy standards rolling back Biden-era vehicle rules. The move ends Biden's electric vehicle mandate and aims to lower car prices.
Whether there was an EV purchase mandate.
6 of 8 outlets skipped it: cites the Iran-US war as the driver behind recent higher US gas prices.
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Same story, two versions
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The Hill
“eliminate anelectric vehicle (EV) mandateintroduced under the Biden administration.”Read the original ↗
Al Jazeera
“there are no federal guidelines or laws that require Americans to buy electric cars”Read the original ↗
Al Jazeera challenges the EV-mandate framing as not legally requiring EV purchases, while The Hill treats it as an EV mandate being eliminated.
Trump rolls back CAFE
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he approved new fuel economy standards that roll back requirements adopted under Joe Biden, and he framed the change as ending what he called Biden’s “EV (electric vehicle) mandate.”
Trump wrote, “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,” in a social media post.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the administration would officially announce the change on Monday, after Trump said he had just approved new fuel economy standards on Truth Social.
Under Biden’s rules finalised in 2024, the required fleetwide fuel economy was scheduled to rise from 39.1 miles per gallon to about 50.4mpg by 2031, according to Al Jazeera.A
The December proposal set the industry fleetwide average for light-duty vehicles at roughly 34.5mpg by 2031.
Numbers, costs, and gas
The Department of Transportation estimates cited by Al Jazeera said loosening the standards would reduce the typical price of a new car by about $930 but would also lead to an increase in fuel consumption by about 100 billion gallons through 2050. AThe same estimates would raise fuel spending by about $185 billion and bring a roughly 5 percent rise in carbon dioxide emissions. DIE WELT said Trump’s administration planned a sweeping loosening of nationwide fuel economy requirements for new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, and it said Trump wanted prices for new American cars to drop substantially by thousands of dollars before the midterms.
Under the Biden administration automakers faced a fuel economy target of 50.4 miles per gallon, and a proposal presented in December would have lowered the target for passenger cars and light-duty vehicles of model year 2031 to an average of 34.5 miles per gallon. The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline reached $4.48 on Saturday, up from $3.14 a year earlier, and drivers in California pay a “California premium” with gas there rising to $6.33 per gallon from $4.64 a year ago.
EV mandate dispute and stakes
Al Jazeera said Trump and U.S. ARepublicans used the term “EV mandate” to describe higher fuel efficiency requirements instituted under Biden, while it added that there are no federal guidelines or laws that require Americans to buy electric cars or bar the sale of ones powered by petrol.
CNBC said Trump presented the policy change as a boon for both automakers and consumers, but it also said the final standards have not yet been publicly detailed.
Trump’s Truth Social post said, “Every Manufacturer, from General Motors to Ford to Stellantis, has called me wanting to build here, and now they can!”
Weaker fuel economy standards mean automakers can produce more pickup trucks and SUVs, which are much more profitable than smaller cars but have worse gas mileage.
The changes form part of a broader Trump administration effort to reverse Biden-era policies supporting lower-emission vehicles, increasing the gap between U.S. policy and global trends favouring electric vehicles.