[GreenToad5]

What does this mean exactly? It is easy to say an electric car is more fuel efficient, the energy is expended somewhere else. Same with hydrogen fuel cells. I think the most likely thing that will happen is increased usage of the stored energy methods mentioned above, and smaller gasoline engines. It's not easy to just make an engine more fuel efficient. You think people haven't been trying to do this since the combustion engine was invented? Never mind that electric vehicles having smaller carbon footprints over their lifetime heavily depends on the electric power source (in some cases they produce more carbon). BTW, Japan has a great mass transit system that most people use so the actual carbon difference in the next 30 years from this law is highly suspect. I get it - we have to do something right? This is not the answer. We need something better.

[acchow]

FTA: "The new rules also begin considering the carbon dioxide emitted when generating the power to run electric vehicles. These emissions will be converted into a fuel economy figure and included in the average, giving carmakers an incentive to improve the performance and range of their electric offerings."