“U.S. automakers have until 2025 to raise the fuel economy on their cars and trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon…or face government fines.”  Jeff Green, writer for Business Week online, illustrates the difficult but necessary challenge facing the American auto industry.  With not only rising gas prices due to always increasing consumption but also air pollution, there is no doubt that new standards will benefit all of us.

It is thanks to President Obama’s new standards for the auto industry that brought about “the largest increase in mileage requirements since the government began regulating consumption of gasoline by cars in the 1970’s” (The New York Times). A few years past, when higher fuel economy standards were brought up, the executives of the industry went down to Washington to protest.  But as Mindy Lubber illustrated, “in 2008, while automakers plodded along with the same old gas-guzzling models as the price at the pump hit record highs, American consumers scrambled for more fuel efficient vehicles.”  As the auto industry saw how fuel efficiency was becoming more and more important in the mind of the consumer, they saw the benefits of fuel efficiency standards. Now the industry is standing beside the new standards and working together with the government in hopes of its success.

U.S. automakers are “already offering buyers a wider selection of more fuel efficient vehicles than ever before”, according to a 2012 article on Think Progress.  Auto companies have already discovered the popularity of smaller cars that are more fuel efficient and are now working more with gas electric hybrids and advancements in battery technology to provide buyers with the most fuel efficient vehicles.  According to the NY Times “these proposed standards can be met using well known technologies such as better engines, lower cost hybrids, and electric cars.”

Help with research and development for lower gas mileage is also coming from a surprising source; the Pentagon.  According to Business Week, “government researches at a new $60 million laboratory are road testing dozens of alternative fuel technologies for fighting vehicles, from converting body heat into electricity to perfecting fuel cells that transform hydrogen into power.”  The lab opened in April of 2012 in Warren, Michigan.  Once these experiments are perfected, they have no issue with sharing them with U.S. automakers in support of raising the fuel economy to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.  To do this they are researching and working with parts of automobiles that drain energy like mufflers or radiators.  They also hope to take the engine power that’s wasted as exhaust heat, recapture it and use it to recharge batteries or run internal computers.

Not only will these new standards and developments in gas mileage help cut consumer expenses at the pump, reduce oil consumption, and help reduce air pollution but according the Think Progress new fuel mileage standards will create almost 700,000 new jobs.  The way that this works out is as follows as shown on Think Progress :

• Ford is accelerating development of its hybrid and electric vehicles by bringing the design and production of key components in-house, a $135 million investment.
• Ford has already doubled the size of its team working on forward-looking energy technologies – over 1,000 engineers and technicians – and plans to double size of that team again by 2015.
• Honda plans to hire 300 more workers next year at its Greensburg, Ind., plant, which is slated to start producing the Civic Hybrid.
• Volkswagen is adding a third shift at its Tenn., plant, to boost production of its fuel-efficient Passat.
• Continental, a supplier of fuel-efficient turbo chargers to Ford’s 2014 Focus, is steadily pursuing electrification technologies and sees them as a “long-term investment.”

As US News illustrates, “so far, the new mileage rules have generated tangible benefits for consumers, with few of the downsides opponents have predicted.” It is due to advanced transmissions, lighter components, advanced power trains, gas electric hybrids, advances in battery technology, better engines, alternative fuel models, and electric cars  that, “since 2007, the average fuel economy of cars purchased has risen from 20.1 miles per gallon to 23.6 mpg” (US NEWS).  Based off of all of this research it seems clear that the new standards in increased gas mileage is a win-win for everyone that seems to be running smoothly so far.

Sources:

Green, Jeff. “Better Gas Mileage, Thanks to Pentagon.” Business Week. 17 May, 2012.

Lubber, Mindy. “Why Fuel Mileage Standards Will Benefit The Auto Industry and Create Nearly 700,000 New Jobs.” Think Progress. 27 August 2012.

Newman, Rick. “Tough Government Gas Mileage Rules Good for Drivers, Auto Industry.” US News. 27 August 2012.

Vlasic, Bill. “Carmakers Back Strict New Rules for Gas Mileage.” The New York Times. 28 July 2011.