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by rubylark
1638 days ago
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I'm curious to see if this really pans out. Seems like its a little pie-in-the-sky for "light trucks," whatever that means (anything smaller than an 18 wheeler? Or only small like a Chevy S10?). From my very cursory research several months ago, there's been almost no improvement in mileage in trucks in at least a decade. My 2008 Tacoma is no less efficient than the 2022 model (20-25 mpg). From what I've seen, the only trucks that come close to meeting the 40 mpg requirement are the fully electric and the Ford Maverick hybrid. |
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The EPA target is called CAFE, or Corporate Average Fuel Economy [1]. It's actually a set of targets, a global one (the one mentioned in the article) and one for each category of cars or light trucks. A light truck is something like your Toyota Tacoma or a Ford F-150. A truck used for moving furniture is not a light truck.
There are two reasons for the disconnect. The fuel economy used in the CAFE calculations is not the same as the one you see on the car sticker in the dealer lot. It's about 20% higher. I know, this is a bit reprehensible, but it's not 2x or 5x.
The second is the continuous increase in the size of the cars and trucks. For example, your 2008 Tacoma [2] is significantly smaller than the 2022 Tacoma [3]: it has a wheelbase of 109.4 inches vs. 127.4. So a similar fuel economy is actually quite a big improvement pound-for-pound.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_average_fuel_economy...
[2] https://www.motortrend.com/cars/toyota/tacoma/2008/
[3]https://www.motortrend.com/cars/toyota/tacoma/2022/