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Auto industry lobbies Trump to ease fuel economy targets, safety regulations

A lobbying group representing the majority of the American automotive industry has begun trying to persuade President-elect Donald Trump to ease environmental and safety regulations covering the industry.


Automotive News has obtained and published a letter sent by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers to the President-elect and his transition team.

The letter urges the president-to-be, who will be sworn in January 20, 2017, to dial back the current CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) target of 54.5mpg (4.3L/100km) by 2025.

With the latter half of the existing CAFE program up for review, Mitch Bainwol, CEO of the Alliance, argues in the letter that low petrol prices and recent fuel efficiency gains are stymieing the uptake of hybrid, plug-ins and EVs, making it hard for the industry to meet the ever higher fuel economy targets.

The Alliance encourages President-elect Trump to review all automotive regulation enacted by the current Obama administration since September 1, which would include the country's recent guidelines for self-driving vehicles.

In the letter, the Alliance states that "well-meaning regulatory action risks increasing compliance costs to the point that additional safety and fuel-efficiency technologies put new vehicles out of financial reach of the average new car purchaser".

The correspondence urges the future President to remove some of the "regulatory friction" in the sector, where, for instance, fuel economy standards are overseen by one government arm, and somewhat conflicting emissions rules are overseen by another body.

It also implores the President-elect to iron out the different regulations and incentives in place at state level, such as California's requirement that 15 per cent of all local car sales be zero emissions vehicles by 2025.

Members of the the Alliance include BMW, Fiat Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Volvo.

You can read the full letter here.

Top image by Gage Skidmore on Flickr.

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