The Trump administration finalized a Transportation Department rule on Monday that revokes Joe Biden-era fuel economy standards and lowers the 2031 light-duty vehicle target to 34.9 miles per gallon. The department said the change is one of the largest deregulatory actions under the second Trump administration.
Sean Duffy said the administration had “finally ended the illegal mandate that forced automakers to produce more expensive electric vehicles that American families didn’t want.” The earlier standard would have required 50.4 miles per gallon by 2031, up from 30.1 miles per gallon in 2024.
Transportation Department rule
The rule changes Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards for light-duty vehicles. Republicans in Congress eliminated noncompliance fines last year, which changes how much pressure automakers face to meet the target even as the department reset it lower.
The White House said rolling back the rules would save consumers $138 billion over the next five years and about $1,300 per new vehicle. At the same time, the Transportation Department said consumers would pay $1,600 more in gas over the lifetime of a vehicle and that gas demand would rise 4.6% through 2035.
Consumers and automakers
The gap between those figures comes down to what is being counted. The White House estimate focuses on upfront vehicle costs, while the department’s own estimate adds fuel use over a vehicle’s life, which is where the extra gasoline expense appears.
Automakers had generally supported lower standards. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation said the original standards “effectively required a switchover to electric vehicles that was out of step with market realities and customer demand.”
Sue Helper on CAFE
Sue Helper of Case Western Reserve University said diluting the CAFE standards will be “very bad in the long term, because it slows progress.” She also said the change makes U.S. cars less competitive.
Dan Becker of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Safe Climate Transport Campaign said, “Trump is tanking sensible miles-per-gallon standards at the worst possible time for consumers, who are getting hit with sky-high prices at the pump.” Katherine García of the Sierra Club said the changes mean “more gas burned, spending more at the pump, and dirtier air in our communities.”
The rollback also fits a broader Trump administration push that has already eliminated a federal tax credit for new electric vehicles worth up to $7,500 and federal tailpipe emission standards. Trump also knocked down Barack Obama-era standards in his first administration, after those rules would have required fleet average fuel economy to reach 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.
For drivers, the practical change is simple: the federal fuel-economy target has moved lower, but the long-term cost debate has not. The rule sets the benchmark for 2031, and the department’s own figures say the tradeoff shows up later at the pump.
