President Donald Trump announced Saturday that he has approved new federal fuel economy standards aimed at dismantling one of the Biden administration’s central automobile policies, setting up another major reversal of the previous administration’s climate agenda.
The new standards would replace tougher Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, requirements adopted during the Biden years. Trump and his administration have repeatedly characterized those requirements as a de facto electric vehicle mandate because of the pressure they placed on automakers to increase the efficiency of their fleets and sell more electric vehicles.
The Biden-era rules did not literally require Americans to purchase EVs, but they called for an industry-wide average of roughly 50 miles per gallon by model year 2031. The Trump administration has argued that meeting such aggressive targets would have pushed manufacturers toward producing significantly more electric vehicles.
