The United States has led the world in the development of guidelines and standards for automobile efficiency, tailpipe emissions, and safety. Over the last fifty years, these laws have helped make the world safer and cleaner. Today, the Trump administration is planning to stop fuel efficiency and emission standards for tailpipes for new vehicles instead of carrying forward with the most recent series of changes mandated by Obama. Obama.
In the Ohio State University’s Center for Automotive Research, we collaborate with companies as well as U.S. government agencies to minimize the environmental impact of cars and improve their security, intelligence, and autonomy. The automotive industry is experiencing epochal transformations as it strives to transform into an integrated, shared, and automated mobility company to tackle the issue of traffic congestion in a more urbanized world, as well as to increase safety and fuel efficiency.
This change is the largest disruption to this industry since the automobile was invented at the beginning of the 19th century. According to my opinion, which the major automobile makers also share, this position of the Trump administration’s policy is not in line with the substantial investments and advancements that the industry has made over the past 50 years.
Cars queue up at the Washington, D.C., service station on Dec. 1st, 1973, during an embargo on exports from oil-producing nations. The ban led to shortages of gasoline and led to measures to improve the efficiency of fuel-efficient U.S.-built automobiles. AP Photo/Harvey Georges
What is the best way to ensure that drivers are safe?
It is believed that the Trump administration’s plan is a continuation of a long-running argument that tightening fuel efficiency standards will make cars more dangerous since manufacturers will have to comply with lighter vehicles. Actually, indeed, the U.S. auto industry has extensively employed alternatives, including high-strength aluminum, high-strength stainless steel, composites, magnesium, and plastics in order to boost fuel efficiency for years and also a myriad of techniques related to transmissions, engines, and hybrid-electric powertrain technologies.
Despite the fact that the size of the U.S. fleet has increased, the weight of vehicles, on average, has remained the same over the last 15 years, and fuel efficiency has increased dramatically. Automakers must adhere to the crashworthiness ratings established by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. There is little or no connection between the safety of vehicles and efficiency. Recent crash test results demonstrate that fuel-efficient cars are able to get excellent security ratings.
The Trump administration also believes that a continued increase in requirements for fuel economy will make the entire vehicles less safe. The reason for this, according to officials, is that higher prices will discourage consumers from purchasing new cars that are equipped with more recent technology that increases safety. Moreover, the consumer’s choice will determine the frequency of replacement for vehicles.
But this assertion is not true. Vehicle sales across the United States since 2009 – the lowest year in the history of vehicle sales since 1982 – have gradually increased from 10.4 million in 2009 to nearly 17 million between 2015 and 2017. The penetration of vehicles that have improved safety and fuel efficiency in the last decade has been staggering. Over 80 million new cars have been bought in the past five years, which is around 25 percent of the U.S. vehicle fleet.
The progress on fuel economy and security
In a lyrical 1970 piece, Caltech chemist Arie Jan Haagen-Smit, an early pioneer in research into air pollution, presented a compelling argument for creating standards for federal air pollution. Since that time, decades of study conducted by industry and government have made cars across the United States dramatically cleaner and more secure.
The two federal departments, both established in the year 1970, oversee the efficiency of fuel, emissions, and safety of motor vehicles. The Environmental Protection Agency develops regulations designed to limit the amount of exhausts of hydrocarbons from the tailpipe, Nitro oxides, and carbon monoxide as well as particulate matter.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) NHTSA assures that all new cars and certain kinds of vehicle components conform to the federal safety standards. The agency also aims to increase the efficiency of fuel-efficient cars and trucks to aid consumers in saving on fuel and reduce carbon emissions, which contribute to climate change.
NHTSA was created through the Highway Safety Act that was prompted by Ralph Nader, a consumer advocate’s 1965 novel ” Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile.” Nader’s best-selling book criticized the auto industry’s apathy and determination to create safe vehicles. It also highlighted an important role for the government in promoting the safety of cars.
In the last few decades, NHTSA has issued rules designed to prevent collisions, which include the requirement for anti-lock brakes as well as electronically controlled stability systems. The agency has been working diligently to ensure that vehicles are safer in the long run, not just by ruling on their safety but also by encouraging the use of crash-avoidance technology. As the auto industry shifts its focus to automated vehicles, NHTSA rulings and regulations will likely evolve in this direction.
Modern vehicle safety systems will make vehicles of all sizes safer for operation.
Incredibly, NHTSA is the body that sets fuel efficiency standards instead of the EPA. This suggests that Congress considered regulations on fuel economy not as a tailpipe emissions issue, even though fuel efficiency is directly related to carbon emissions, but rather as something that affects the cost of operating vehicles.
Achieving global success
Current CAFE regulations that were changed under Obama’s Obama administration during the Obama presidency in 2012 require continuous fuel efficiency through 2025 to achieve an average fleet-wide fuel economy of 54.5 miles for every gallon. They are indexed according to the footprint of vehicles so that larger vehicles, like sport utility vehicles as well as light trucks, aren’t subject to the same regulations as smaller passenger cars.
Automobile manufacturers receive credit for vehicles powered by alternative energy sources or electricity. However, the regulations do not pertain to electric vehicles, which make up only a tiny percentage of the market. One method for manufacturers to meet the new rules is to adopt hybrid electric powertrains. Other options include sophisticated 910 and 11-speed transmissions, as well as advanced engine technologies, including direct injection as well as turbocharging.
Each of them is increasingly being used in the U.S. vehicle fleet. The fuel economy regulations have ensured that the United States remains a technology innovator and is able to rival automakers in Europe as well as Asia.
In 2016, NHTSA, The EPA, and the California Air Resources Board completed a mid-term review of these regulations in order to evaluate their effectiveness and to determine the additional cost associated with these regulations for the auto industry and, consequently, to consumers. The study was based on a survey conducted in 2015 by the National Academy of Engineering that gave a thorough analysis of new technologies to increase the efficiency of fuel and the associated cost of implementation.
The report concluded that with the help of global platforms, major car manufacturers have realized economies of scale with the adoption of new technology. It urged quantifying the costs to manufacturers of implementing different technologies in terms of dollars to boost the efficiency of their vehicles by a certain percentage. In other words, linking the increased costs of the product to savings at the pump. In a lot of cases, if the expense of technological advancement is amortized over a time of 3 to 5 years, the savings are greater than the cost.
All new vehicles that are sold starting with model year 2013 have this sticker. It’s created to assist consumers in making educated decisions about their fuel efficiency and vehicle emissions, as well as costs. NHTSA
There are many markets for U.S. automakers. The United States is not the sole market that caters to U.S. automakers. All major automobile manufacturing regions in the world have enacted comparable fuel economy regulations, expressed in terms of carbon dioxide emissions at the vehicle tailpipe in grams per kilometer traveled. The European Union, China, Japan, and South Korea have also required manufacturers to build more fuel-efficient vehicles. However, U.S. standards are less strict due to the larger size average of vehicles within North America. North American market.
The automobile business is a global business that allows manufacturers to sell similar products across multiple continents using global platforms. U.S. automakers want consistent standards so that they are not required to bear the expense of developing and manufacturing vehicles that are not able to compete with global appeal.
The rules the Trump administration would like to put on hold follow this principle and also align with the U.S. auto industry’s need to keep its technology-leading position on the international market.
