CAFE
When the Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules were setup, they carved out lower requirements for light duty trucks and SUVs. This encouraged manufactures to make everything into pickups and SUVs. Recently, it has been changed to encourage larger vehicles and it’s VERY complex now.
From Wikipedia (I can’t find it clearly stated on NTSB or EPA or the like), it says that for 2025…
small cars 60.26
Mid cars 51.13 (15% less than a small car)
Large Cars 45.10 (12% less than a mid car)
Small Trucks/SUVs 48.32 (20% lower than similar sized car)
Mid Trucks/SUVs 38.31 (25% lower than similar sized car)
Large Trucks/SUVs 31.73 (30% lower than similar sized car)
X-Large Trucks/SUVS 29.07
These MPG standards have nothing to do with the EPA estimated fuel economy. But if you look at how big a reductionin fuel economy that is allowable with size/class, it basically tells the manufacturers to make large trucks/SUVs or use more expensive hybrid powertrains.
But wait… there’s more. Trucks/SUVs stop at 8500 lbs. Above this, all bets are off for fuel economy standards.
Have you noticed how LT trucks have gone from 1/2 ton to full ton trucks in payload capacity? That’s so that the manufacturers can creep up towards that 8500 lb cutoff. 2024 F150s can have a gross weight of 7850 if you option them the right way. Go back to 1980, and the Gross Vehicle weight of a F150 was 5500 lbs or so.
Have you also noticed how much more popular HD trucks are now? They aren’t much more expensive and have a reputation of being better built and lasting longer (no idea if that is true with today’s trucks). The Big 3 is really pushing 8500 lb trucks to avoid CAFE.
But thankfully, with EVs coming around the corner, the bias towards big heavy trucks will go away…
Screen shot from IRS rules. If it doesn’t post, the Maximum MSRP for the$7500 tax incentive is $80kfor vans, SUVs and pickups and $55k for other vehicles.
So, even in the world if EVs, there is a legal bias towards making big ass SUVs and Trucks.
CAFE is one, but it’s not the only law that encourages ever-growing vehicles. All of them need to be looked at again, preferably as they enter some sort of industrial shredder.