Edmunds.com Discovers CAFE Discrepancy; New Goals Not What They Seem

MORE: U.S. Energy Policy Needs Bold; Obama Gives Same Old
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SANTA MONICA, Calif.--Even supporters of CAFE might be surprised to learn that the standards announced this week will actually require automakers to make much less progress than implied.

“Turns out that there are loopholes almost big enough to drive an SUV through,” quipped Edmunds.com CEO Jeremy Anwyl to AutoObserver.com.

One might think the government would use a single set of ratings for both CAFE and vehicle window stickers. But the well-known EPA mileage ratings are not used to calculate CAFE, and the difference can be significant. For example, a vehicle that scores an EPA combined rating of 29 miles per gallon actually contributes 39 MPG to its manufacturer’s CAFE average. There are 29 car models and 36 truck models that already achieve the new standard, and about a third of the cars and half of the trucks are produced by a domestic automaker.

Edmunds.com Director of Vehicle Testing Dan Edmunds explained, “CAFE miles per gallon ratings and EPA window sticker MPG ratings were originally generated simultaneously through government lab testing. Window sticker ratings have been downrated twice in the last 25 years to make them more realistic for consumers, while CAFE mpg methods remained the same. So, with each EPA revision, EPA window sticker MPG and CAFE MPG drifted further apart.”

Edmunds’ GreenCarAdvisor.com Editor John O’Dell originally reported on this discrepancy in December 2007, in an article entitled Fuel Economy: Doublespeak at its Best (at http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradvisor/2007/12/fuel-economy-doublespeak-at-its-best.html.) In that piece, he wrote, “Most people have been trained to think only of the EPA numbers when talk turns to fuel economy, and they aren't aware of the differences between the EPA and CAFE figures. That makes the standard a little misleading.”

MORE: U.S. Energy Policy Needs Bold; Obama Gives Same Old

MORE: Rank Cars and Trucks by MPG