Study Throws Water on Obama Fuel-Economy Goals

A NEW REPORT SAYS THE OBAMA Admin.'s proposed 62 mpg (3.8 L/100 km) fuel-economy target for 2025 could kill hundreds of thousands of jobs, put a $55,000 sticker on an ordinary family car and deliver only minor savings to consumers.

The study was produced by the Ann Arbor, MI-based Center for Automotive Research, which has been a darling of the White House in recent months.

The automotive think tank has supplied much of the data that support government claims the bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler saved 1.2 million jobs, billions in tax revenues and billions more in welfare and unemployment checks that never had to be paid out.

But it's unlikely the White House will tout CAR's new study on proposed corporate average fuel economy standards.

The paper forecasts what the U.S. vehicle market will look like in 2025.

“These mandates are so tough, why would (the White House) be interested in destroying an industry they just saved?” one of the study's authors, Sean McAlinden, CAR chief economist and vice president of research, tells Ward's.

Currently, auto makers must meet a U.S. fleet average fuel economy of 35.5 mpg (6.6 L/100 km) by 2016.

Beginning this year with '12 vehicles, fleet-fuel economy will increase an average 4%.

Last year, the Obama Admin. proposed new CAFE rules beginning in 2017 that would require average increases of 3% to 6% per year, achieving 47 mpg (5 L/100 km) by 2025 at the low end and 62 mpg at the high end.

Obama has been favoring standards at the high end of the scale, and some environmental groups are pressing for faster increases of 7% or more annually beginning in 2017.