Cali Considers 44MPG Standard
Posted on Monday 25 February 2008

Carmakers are already fretting at the thought of achieving the new 35mpg CAFE standards imposed by the U.S. government, so imagine how they would feel if faced with a much stricter 44mpg being considered by California regulators. Officials are looking at raising restrictions over the next decade, culminating with a 44mpg standard by 2020 as proposed by the California Air Resources Board.

California is the single biggest market for cars in the world but what’s worse for carmakers is that a further 15 other states plan to adopt the new rules as well. Combined, these states account for more than half of the total U.S. market, so such a rule would almost certainly dictate the kinds of cars and trucks sold across the entire country, reports Automotive News.

As expected the industry is opposed to states setting their own greenhouse rules but major presidential candidates, John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are all in favor of the idea. If it were to come in, there would have to be a 62% improvement in fuel economy over today’s vehicles. Another major hurdle would be convincing people to downgrade to much more fuel-efficient models, no easy task in car crazed California.
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44mpg? That's going to be a tough cookie to crack, especially for the luxury cars or anything with some kinda power to it.

 

Does that mean that everyone is gonna drive a Prius or Honda Civic?

Toyota and Honda are going to be very profitable brands in California...

 

What it means is that everybody will hang on to their old cars longer.

 

Prius barely makes the cut, at 46mpg. The civic hybrid falls short by 2mpg. Regular civics miss by 15mpg, and the Si hits just over half of the proposed requirement--20mpg short.

So there's the prius, and then there's the smart fortwo. Enjoy yourselves California, because that's all you have to choose from!

No one with even a tenth of a brain would propose AVERAGE economy standards that a subcompact hybrid car can't even hit. A far more effective way of curbing our carbon footprint would be to just kill everyone involved with this proposal.

 

Exactly. All my cars are paid off, so screw 'em, I'll drive my pre-smog '72 Fiat
with no catalytic converter or smog equipment.

I wonder if anyone has considered the ramifications of this: fewer new cars
sold, more older "gross polluter" cars on the road. So... we reduce dependency
on foreign oil at the expense of diminishing the air quality?

Genius!

Politicians... it's not about helping the country, it's about servicing
the adjendas of their lobbyists and their personal careers. Fools.

 

this is what the government should do. save the hundreds of billions of dollars we are spending on the war, and buy every family a prius. mhmm yep. you heard me right.

the problem is that the government needs to do something to promote buyers into buying new cars. I see those old american cars on the street that create a cloud of smoke when they accelerate. its quite disgusting, and i have everybit of mind to call 1800-exhuast on them.

 

The CA state government is on crack.

 

No, they'll catch up to you and others with your 'gross polluters' too, with 'incentives' and penalties to 'encourage' you to get rid of it. Meaning - you go for your smog test and get presented with a $2000 bill and up each year for owning your smog generator until you dump it.

Eventually only Jay Leno and a few others will have old smog producers.

This is all inevitable. We mustn't forget the politicians know what's best for us, supported by Hollywood Liberals and other do gooders.

 

i wonder how they came up with these numbers, just whatever they feel like or based on analytical research on how engine efficiency and technology are advancing?

 

They probably said - hey, let's make it around the same as a Prius.

 

there go politicians?

 

I think it goes something like this..

 

Well the politicians have a problem where I live. They keep tightening emissions restrictions in Mexico City and want people to use either public transportation or get a new (more expensive) vehicle that pollutes less, but the problem is that people can't afford it and the public transportations doesn't go where you want to go.

The double whammy for the local government here is that a very good percentage of their tax revenues come from an annual tax known as tenencia. I have a friend who has a new Jeep Liberty and she pays about $400 USD a year on this tax, even though her property tax on her small apartment is only about $50 USD a year.

As such, recently the local government (due to this severe drop off given they took so many old cars off the road), decided to increase the property tax (known as a predial) and people got royally ticked and went to court to stop it, and apparently a few have got legal injunctions.

 

so no more new cars for cali then? cause damn 44mpg for each car is going to be really hard to do. damn hippie state.