Too Much CAFE Makes Cars Smaller, More Expensive: Doron Levin
And don't blame Detroit for buying advertisements designed to scare motorists over talk about adopting tougher mileage standards.
From the automakers' perspective, tighter fuel-efficiency rules will force them to build smaller cars and trucks, perhaps tipping a financially shaky industry over the brink.
If federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, or CAFE, rise anything like the 4 percent a year over the next 10 or 15 years outlined in a U.S. Senate bill, pickup trucks, minivans and sport utility vehicles might become scarce or disappear from America's highways. The CAFE for cars and trucks now is a combined average of about 25 miles per gallon; that would rise to 35 miles per gallon by 2020, with more increases through 2030.
Bye-bye Chevrolet Avalanche.
