Toyota Rejects Industry Lobby, Embraces CAFE
With California’s Air Resource Board and the EPA set to unleash new 2016-2025 CAFE standards, the Alliance of Automotive Manuacturers, which represents foreign and domestic automakers, is lashing out, telling Automotive News [sub]
We all want to put the most fuel-efficient vehicles as possible on the road, but for the 2017 rulemaking, policymakers still need to gather and analyze much data to determine the maximum feasible fuel economy standards that avoid negative impacts on affordability, safety, jobs and vehicle choice. No one knows what the 2025 target should be yet, and the data needs to drive the rulemaking.
But not everyone in the industry is on board with the AAM’s CAFE-skepticism. Already, Hyundai Motors USA CEO John Krafcik tells TTAC his firm plans to “Overcomply” with the coming CAFE standards, and now Toyota is joining Hyundai in breaking ranks, with Jim Colon, VP for Product Communications saying
The administration is engaged. That’s the direction Toyota is already going. Whatever goal they establish, Toyota will be prepared to meet. If it’s 62 miles a gallon, we’ll be able to achieve that.
For too long now, the auto industry has allowed itself to be seen as an enemy of emissions regulation without ever taking the initiative to propose its most viable alternative to CAFE, a gas tax. By embracing CAFE, Toyota and Hyundai are weakening industry opposition to the up-ramped standards, and in the process the two firms have carved out important marketing high ground. And with good reason: given that consumer demand tends to vary far more dramatically than fuel prices themselves, even a relatively small spike in fuel prices could have consumers demanding more vehicles that achieve CAFE minimum efficiency levels or better. In the absence of industry leadership to do anything other than drag heels and complain about interference from the government that recently saved a large sector of the industry, Toyota and Hyundai seem to be headed in a positive direction.
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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The irony is that nobody has either gut or consideration to push for the harmonisation of automotive emission regulations between the US EPA and EU. Many countries have adopted the EU regulations as the de facto standards. Even Japan and Australia who have discarded many of its "unique" regulations to harmonise with ECE and EU as to reduce the manufacturing cost and to increase the variety of models, body types, motor and gearbox choices, and so forth. China has even adopted the EU standards. While EPA and EU are very similar in scope, they disagree on the techniques of measuring the emission and procedures of certifying the vehicles. Time is now to force the United States to comply with the international de facto standards!
Let's see, Toyota, Honda and Hyundai has no problem with it. GM spent all the AD money spamming how great their highway MPGs beat Toyota models and the 200+ MPG from the Volt hybrid. SO, GM SHOULDN'T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH A NEW STANDARD THAT EVEN THE STUPID TOYOTA CAN ACHIEVE, RIGHT? As for Ford, the supporter have always claimed that Ford is superior to GM, so they have no problem. And Chrysler is supposed to have super efficient Fiat models; Nissan has leaves. Exactly who is complaining?