35 mpg by 2020. Sounds simple, right? Well, it sounds simple unless you're an auto industry engineer who needs to help build a bunch of cars that achieve that number. But to the rest of us, those are some pretty easy-to-remember numbers. Still, how do we get from where we are today (a corporate average fleet economy of 27.5 mpg for cars) and that magical 35-by-2020 number? This is a problem that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the White House need to resolve, for now anyway.

Last week, NHTSA sent a proposal for how annual fuel economy increases might work to the White House. According to the Detroit News, NHTSA has specified four years of increases, but the White House Office of Management and Budget now gets to review and possibly revise the proposal. NHTSA said it would like the internal discussions completed by April, at which time the public would get a chance to comment. A final decision will likely come by the end of 2008.

[Source: David Shepardson / Detroit News]

Now that the energy bill and its attendant fuel economy standards has been passed here in the U.S., it looks like the Canadian government wants to officially adopt the same standards. Canada has never actually had fuel efficiency standards of its own but in 2007 committed to implementing one. Since the Canadian auto market is so intertwined with the U.S. but the sales volumes are only about one tenth of America's, car-makers have traditionally just taken vehicles designed for U.S. regulations, switched the speedometers and odometers to km and sold them north of the border. Because of higher gas taxes, the sales mix in Canada has typically skewed more toward the smaller, more-efficient vehicles anyway so any move add fuel economy standards there looks more like a government posturing before an election than a real effort to improve efficiency. The fleet average for cars and trucks in Canada was 27.3mpg (U.S.) in 2006 but Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon announced at the Montreal Auto Show that the government would establish standards that meet or exceed the U.S. 35mpg by 2020 level.

[Source: CTV]

Not that there was any real question, but the 35 mpg CAFE deed is now done. President Bush signed the huge new energy bill into law this morning, and that means that automakers will need to have the average fleet economy of new vehicles reach 35 mpg by 2020. We don't need rehash the history of this repeatedly-weakened bill once again (see previous posts here and here if you need a recap); let's just be thankful that the 35 mpg standard survived all the backing down. And the Detroit News mentions this: "a measure in the bill that will provide at least $90 million annually for battery research to make plug-in hybrids a reality." Somehow I thought the PHEV money had been stricken. Hey, it's nice to be wrong. While the 35 mpg number won't kick in until 2020, the bill mandates changes starting with the 2011 model year. My, that's soon.

[Source: David Shepardson, The Detroit News, Photo by Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty]

This afternoon, the energy bill that requires 35 mpg by 2020 CAFE handily passed Congress. After passing in the Senate last week, the first increase in average fleet fuel economy in 32 years sailed through the House of Representatives 314-100. The auto industry's best friend in Congress, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., "was key to a compromise on vehicle efficiency increases," as the AP put it. As we mentioned, part of that compromise meant stripping out tax provisions for renewable energy requirements and the elimination of new incentives for plug-in hybrid vehicles. Oil companies were also spared higher taxes. President Bush has said he will sign the bill.

The new CAFE standard is part of a broad energy bill and includes a massive boost to ethanol producers. As the AP reports:

In a dramatic shift to spur increased demand for nonfossil fuels, the bill also requires a six-fold increase in ethanol use to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022, a boon to farmers. And it requires new energy efficiency standards for an array of appliances, lighting and commercial and government buildings.

With the negotiations over, the auto industry now needs to get all of their wonderful concepts out of the auto shows and onto the roads. Thirteen years should be plenty of time, even in the notoriously slow auto industry. They'll need to work hard, based on the number of cars we can buy today that will offer 35 mpg - not many.

[Source: AP]

Forget MPG, just pull into a gas station with your Tesla Roadster and smile....
(Photo by Jurvetson. CC 2.)

Hm. While Toyota has been pushing for less stringent CAFE standards (and taking a beating for it), a group that Toyota is part of, the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, has told Congress that the stronger 35 mpg is acceptable. The twist is that they want "more time" than is being talked about to meet that goal (so, no 2020 implementation). As AIAM president Mike Stanton told Automotive News, 35 mpg CAFE is coming, so "Why beat your head up against the wall?"

AIAM is for asking the deadline, should it be 35 mpg, to be pushed back by "several years." Automotive News says that the AIAM's call "adds to the likelihood that Congress will pass a tough fuel economy measure this year." The Auto Alliance, which also represents Toyota, is calling for implementation of weaker CAFE standard that would put cars and trucks into two categories and calls for a 32 mpg average by 2022. Talk about covering your bases.

[Source: Harry Stoffer, Automotive News]

Almost all NEVs in the U.S. are limited by law (and thus by a setting in the car) to 25 mph. In some areas - Montana, for example - the laws are being changed so that these little commuter cars can go 35 mph. But, just because the law changes doesn't mean that the car magically upgrades its top speed. No, for that we'll need to turn to Electric Cars Are For Girls' upgrade guide, written exclusively for ZENN vehicles.

I'll start the way the guide does: with caveats. Therefore, I must say you should only attempt this if a.) you know what you're doing and b.) it's legal and c.) you've read through all the caveats at ECAFG and understand what you're getting into. OK, that should make the lawyers happy (and stop you from becoming unhappy).

The guide describes a step-by-step method to change the settings to the speed controller. You'll need a laptop (PC, I think), some cables, a free file from ECAFG and a version of the GE Sentry Software ($40). Once you've collected these things, it's a fairly straightforward process of hooking the laptop to the car and changing the settings. The full details are available here.

[Source: Electric Cars Are For Girls]

Over on the Toyota Open Road blog, VP Communications Irv Miller has put a post calling on Congress to pass a comprehensive energy bill this session. In particular, Toyota wants the US Congress to pass the Hill-Terry fuel economy standards. That's the same proposal favored by the domestic automakers that would raise the fleet average to somewhere between 32 and 35 mpg by 2022. That's weaker than the bill passed by the Senate last June that would require 35 mpg by 2020. While it's not as tough as the Senate bill, it's likely to be the best compromise that can be achieved and Congress is unlikely to show enough backbone to establish a minimum price for fossil fuels anyway, so they might as well pass this.

[Source: Toyota]