The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents many of the industry players investing in electrification, has called for one national standard that aligns NHTSA’s fuel economy standards with the EPA’s regulation.
The group was still reviewing NHTSA’s proposal but said it was “encouraging” that the two regulators seem to have tried to “sync up” the rules.
“Conflicting and overlapping rules are complex and expensive,” John Bozzella, the group’s CEO, said in a statement last month. “If an automaker complies with EPA’s yet-to-be-finalized greenhouse gas emissions rules, they shouldn’t be at risk of violating CAFE rules and subject to civil penalties that levy costs on consumers and manufacturers but deliver no corresponding environmental benefits.”
NHTSA last year reinstated higher penalties for automakers whose vehicles do not comply with fuel economy standards for the 2019 model year and beyond. Automakers argued in 2016 that the increased penalties could raise industry compliance costs by at least $1 billion annually.
Last month, NHTSA told reporters that its proposed fuel economy standards “complement and align with” the EPA’s proposal and that the two regulators will work together to optimize their effectiveness while minimizing compliance costs.
Several automakers contacted by Automotive News said they were still reviewing NHTSA’s proposal but welcomed the intent to harmonize the regulations.
“The idea that a manufacturer can make one fleet that complies with both rules is definitely true,” Cooke said of the EPA and NHTSA proposals. “Unfortunately, I think it just means that manufacturers are just going to largely design toward EPA’s program.”
Given previous legal challenges — some still ongoing — that involve both regulators’ standards, some legal experts have suggested the NHTSA proposal could act as extra support.
“I have seen some speculation that this is sort of a ‘belt and suspenders,’ ” said Bob Meyers, a partner at Crowell & Moring law firm’s Washington office. “In case one goes down, the other one stands.”