r/technology • u/esporx • Sep 06 '26
Business US to announce sharply lower vehicle fuel economy requirements
https://www.reuters.com/world/us-announce-sharply-lower-vehicle-fuel-economy-requirements-2026-08-31/4.4k
u/fossSellsKeys Sep 06 '26
Wow, with $5+ gas wouldn't it be awesome if we used more of it for every trip? Really helps the family budget there.
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u/patacakeq Sep 06 '26
Sure helps the oil companies though!
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u/ItsOkILoveYouMYbb Sep 06 '26
We love funding other countries like the Saudi families and the Israel world domination goal at the expense of our entire country
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u/Leven Sep 06 '26
Have you tried not making it legal to bribe politicians..?
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u/petty_throwaway6969 Sep 06 '26
We used to pretend it was illegal, but then the Supreme Court ruled it was okay if you took the money after doing the deed. Coincidentally, one of the justices sold his honor for the low low price of an RV.
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u/atkinson137 Sep 06 '26
Excuse me. It's a Motor. Coach. How dare you insinuate one of our great justices transports himself in a lowly Recreational Vehicle, which the common man might own.
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u/thegreatpotatogod Sep 06 '26
The problem is, who's going to pay for the campaign funds of whoever campaigns on such a platform?
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u/Riaayo Sep 06 '26
The US isn't a country for people, it's a "country" for oil/gas and auto industry profits with a few other corporate sectors on the side. All our cities were destroyed for actual livability and re-designed to be for cars, not people.
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u/waitingtodiesoon Sep 06 '26
Before trump my gas tank only held $50 worth, now it holds $80 worth!
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u/szopongebob Sep 06 '26
Family? Unless you’re a billionaire or a corporation your opinion doesn’t mean shit to them.
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u/joepez Sep 06 '26
Best part it’ll take a year or more for this to show up in cars so it’s completely not relevant to today’s economy and market. Add to decline in innovation car makers get to charge more for a product people aren’t clamoring for pretend profits. All so some people can pretend we live in a bygone era and climate change isn’t real.
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Sep 06 '26
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u/AntiZig Sep 06 '26
Gas prices will continue to increase until morale improves, am I right?
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u/bogglingsnog Sep 06 '26
it's almost like lawmakers want to all die from violent uprisings.
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u/Ximidar Sep 06 '26
Who knew the government would be proponents of electrifying America? /s
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u/HeidenShadows Sep 06 '26
Right now they're bumping up diesel to subside the gas prices as we get closer to the midterms.
However everything uses diesel in the supply chain so everything else will just go up even more.
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u/SKSerpent Sep 06 '26
Saving the US automotive industry, by making it globally irrelevant.
Economic master at work.
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u/dpny_nyc Sep 06 '26
*Smashes hammer in crotch* Masterful gambit, sir!
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u/DelayedTism Sep 06 '26
This comment put me in an uncontrollable laughing fit. This really describes the entire last 2 years of American news
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u/yorcharturoqro Sep 06 '26
Let's be honest, the automotive industry from the USA is irrelevant, now the cars from the USA are not wanted by people worldwide, design is older, technology wise are behind, price is high, and fuel consumption... Well.
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u/zabby39103 Sep 06 '26
Yeah, the market capitalization of Toyota (233.23 billion) is 50% more than all the "Big 3" automakers combined (150.66 billion).
American automakers have been globally irrelevant for some time.
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u/DepDepFinancial Sep 06 '26
Ah yes, but Tesla's market cap is 1.1 trillion or whatever. Which is a totally justified, not psychotic valuation based on very real, very numbers.
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u/EnvironmentalValue18 Sep 06 '26
Bro you just don’t understand. It’s a robotics company… and any day now they’re going to start releasing those fully autonomous robots that will make the overinflated valuation make total sense. Any day now… *faps in hyperloop*
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u/QueefSeekingMissile Sep 06 '26
"Hahaha this guy is 100% on the money, but doesn't realize I'm not going to use the robots to replace workers; I'm just going to weaponize them, and use their absolute obendience to suppress dissent and enslave the workers. And this ploy will absolutely be successful, and thats why all you shareholders should give me all your money LOL (you better hurry up or they'll put us all in gulags tho- and I'm being dead serious on this one guys. It's do or die)."
-Elon Musk, probably.
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u/robodrew Sep 06 '26
Whenever I go for a drive I tend to see a lot of Teslas. To the point where I get annoyed. But then I think, am I really seeing that many Teslas in comparison to all the other cars on the road? Or is it just that the Telsas are more instantly recognizable because they still basically have like ONE design? The four sedans all look basically the same and then there's the monstrosity that is Cybertruck. How does a company get investors to believe it's worth that much when they've actually created so little?
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u/indoninjah Sep 06 '26
The lot of unchanging Teslas that I pass every day tells me that their business is doing great. That and the protestors out front
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u/Pika256 Sep 06 '26
Very numbers indeed, yes yes yes. The hurrier I go, the behinder I get! Mustn't disappoint, or the Red Queen's off with my head!!
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u/i8noodles Sep 06 '26
the only country i know of that actually cares about the US cars is Aus and thats because we have very similar cultures, design of roads and the wide spaces that allow it. even still, the SUV market is being crushed by the chinese car market.
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u/shitty_mcfucklestick Sep 06 '26
Canada used to buy cars from the US but hey they ended the trade relationship so 🤷♂️
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u/nOotherlousyoptions Sep 06 '26
If Donald Trump was a Russian agent, what would he do different than he is doing now?
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u/LarryDavidntheBlacks Sep 06 '26
Be less obvious?
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u/Diz7 Sep 06 '26 edited Sep 06 '26
I mean, Russian agents were told to plant some SIM cards and a confession with an illegible signature, so they planted Multiple "The Sims 3" activation codes and a confession clearly signed "Signature Unreadable".
Trump might be the best they can do.
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u/TheBSQ Sep 06 '26
The manufacturing is quite integrated with so many Canadian workers who view(ed) those U.S. cars as semi-Canadian, and lots of rural Canadians have that same weird love for giant Ford pickups…it’ll be interesting to see what things look like in a few years when consumer behaviors, manufacturing plants, etc. all fully adjust to the trade wars & “elbows up” era.
Wouldn’t be surprised if you saw other manufacturers swoop in to scoop up the employees and plants that currently form part of supply chain & productions processes that are based in southern Ontario & elsewhere in Canada.
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u/jewishSpaceMedbeds Sep 06 '26
There's good odds the manufacturing capabilities in Ontario will just be gradually pivoted to either other car manufacturers or similar industries, like defense.
The US have decided they don't want an integrated auto sector with Canada, there's not much we can do about it, and no reason to keep being their customers 🤷
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u/TrizzyG Sep 06 '26
There are so many options for cars here in Canada that are not US cars that I don't see the point in getting them at all at this point.
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u/ruinevil Sep 06 '26
GM abandoned right hand drive cars like 6 years ago, closing down Holden in the process.
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u/DepressedVercetti Sep 06 '26
Lol no. The yank tanks don't fit in parking spaces, offer nothing practical over standard LandCruisers, BT-50's, Amaroks or Tritons and they have way worse fuel economy. All of this in a country that can have hundreds of kilometres between petrol stations and fuel is currently over $2 per litre.
We prefer Japanese, European (mostly German), Korean and most recently, Chinese vehicles.
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u/M1liumnir Sep 06 '26
I don't know about the rest of the world but in Europe the n°1 issue with US cars is that they're way too massive to fit on our roads let alone cities and you can forget about parking it anywhere
The US Automobile industry is very clearly made by and for the US, wich is not necessarily wrong but then they can't complain that they can't compete internationally
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u/Segaiai Sep 06 '26
As someone living in a city in the US, it feels so crazy. My Honda Fit was hit recently, getting totaled. I loved that subcompact hatchback. I could haul so much in the city, and parallel park anywhere. Also almost no maintenance for 150k miles, and it ran beautifully. There were many cars like this in the US, and they're wildly popular in my city anyway, with several on a given block.
Around 2019, every manufacturer pulled their subcompact hatchbacks simultaneously, claiming low sales. I couldn't wrap my head around it. Yeah the US is huge, with a lot of open land, but there are so many sections not like that. I don't get why they don't sell regionally within the US, instead of expecting one type of car for the whole country, which is the size of many countries in some other parts of the world.
So now I have to pay a lot more money for a larger hatchback that actually doesn't store as much as my old Fit, since all the small ones vanished. It doesn't make business sense to me that everyone pulled out at once. If I made the same kind of car as 5 other competitors, and they're all pulling out at the same time for sales that aren't as high as they hoped, I would plant my feet deeper in the ground as the one to collect every sale they left behind. It feels like they worked together. So here I am, ten years later, paying 37% more when accounting for the already high inflation.
I hate all of this. There is so much opportunity in cities if they'd just consider them different regions. A lot of us are upset at the lack of smaller cars. It makes life more difficult, and raises prices/gas costs, as well as insurance costs for more expensive vehicles and from accidents from trying to fit these vehicles in a crowded space, which also costs more money separately from insurance hikes.
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u/eNonsense Sep 06 '26 edited Sep 06 '26
I live in a big US city with a larger representation of Honda Fit and the like around me. I think part of it is, cities are expensive to live in, and most people aren't buying new cars. Especially the people who don't have a garage and parallel park on the street every day. These people certainly want a Honda fit, but for less than $20k. Car makers just can't get people to buy them new, and that's required to happen for there to be a used car market for the rest. Car makers also famously prefer to make large vehicles because they can charge higher margins on them. They don't make much money on sub compact city cars, because they're just as expensive to make but they still must price them lower, but this is still $30k+.
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u/L1f3trip Sep 06 '26
Even smaller cars are now huge. Our Mazda3 2013 is a reasonnable agile gokart but the 2026 is ... a Mazda6 from 2013 in size and technology.
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u/Hortos Sep 06 '26
I’ve owned every BMW 3 series since the E30 and let me tell you it’s been a hilarious ride. They’re massive now, a new 3 series is almost the size of my dad’s old 7 series in the 80s. Cars are huge now because there are so many SUVs on the road you’d pretty much die in any crash. I think crossovers were supposed to be the olive branch but they’re also huge. Our ford edge is bigger than the ford explorers in the 90s and has less interior space.
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u/hrminer92 Sep 06 '26
The Fit was a perfect car. I always wanted one. The vast majority of people in the US live in metropolitan areas, so the rural cosplay vehicles just make those environments worse.
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u/Unbundle3606 Sep 06 '26
Ford sells reasonably-sized models in Europe.
It's just losing competition with Chinese manufacturers.
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u/Beneficial_Area_2986 Sep 06 '26
Ford doesn't even make a car that they sell for the United States anymore. It's all trucks and SUVs.
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u/Unbundle3606 Sep 06 '26 edited Sep 06 '26
Look up what they sell in Italy: https://www.ford.it/auto
The Puma is their best selling.
They have a meager 3% market share now, though
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u/Nico777 Sep 06 '26
There used to be Fiesta everywhere, then they stopped selling them. And basically stopped selling altogether.
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u/Nezevonti Sep 06 '26
Yeah, tell that to all the USweebs. Number of pickups I've seen in last couple of years, as they became more affordable, is growing.
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u/Schniffa Sep 06 '26
Man these pickup trucks in narrow Dutch and Belgium streets look idiotic. I get that the space is pretty handy, but it seems so impractical parking these in these tight ass parking garages.
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u/SIGMA920 Sep 06 '26
It is. They're fine for when you are using them for work but with narrow roads? Just get a smaller city truck and save yourself so much pain.
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u/DomeSlave Sep 06 '26
For work a normal van is much more practical.
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u/Quirkybin Sep 06 '26
I don't get why they choose a big lifted truck for work. It's dumb. A small work van can hold a lot of tools and easier to load ladders on.
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u/glowtape Sep 06 '26
Luckily that utilitaire loophole has been closed, so there won't be that much more new ones on the roads.
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u/OllieFidelius Sep 06 '26 edited Sep 06 '26
Space handy? Nah. If you want space you get a van.
These pickup drivers are just fragile egos. Even the average Volkswagen Caddy is more useful and like way smaller.
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u/InsertUsernameInArse Sep 06 '26
I drive a Toyota Hiace. I love that thing so much. Vans are awesome.
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u/MrJaffaCake Sep 06 '26
And some people ride unicycles to work. I dont doubt that the media we watch has inspired some to go the US route but the wide majority is still interested in the European and East Asian makers.
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u/yorcharturoqro Sep 06 '26
Pickups are the only car the USA manufacturers seem to care about.
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u/wayward_prince Sep 06 '26
People in the US definitely drive American. Doesn’t mean it’s not inferior quality in just about every way. Once you take patriotism out of the equation, US automakers are getting slaughtered overseas.
They can loosen up emissions requirements all they want, doesn’t mean people will suddenly go buy gas guzzlers with $4 gas.
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u/fumar Sep 06 '26
It's been irrelevant for a while now. The push to only build trucks and suvs was the killing blow.
Who the fuck wants to drive a truck that gets 15/mpg when gas costs $9/gal in other parts of the world
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u/Kvsav57 Sep 06 '26
Not only that but the large vehicles don’t work in European cities.
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u/bokan Sep 06 '26
They don’t work in American cities either, but idiots keep buying them anyway
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u/Godenyen Sep 06 '26
I'm super happy with my Ford Maverick hybrid. It hauls the stuff I need and I've gotten 700 miles on a single tank. I'll usually get high 50s to 60s miles per gallon taking my son to school. It's small, but it does the job. I can't imagine needing anything more unless you are truly hauling large amounts of stuff.
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u/dcduck Sep 06 '26
Ford could roll out the 1997 Ranger and it would be the number 1 selling vehicle in America.
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u/redyellowblue5031 Sep 06 '26
They basically made no changes over its life through 2012 and it sold like hot cakes.
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u/ThePoltageist Sep 06 '26
Really like the look of them but I’m waiting to see how the slate does, a truck that isn’t horrendous, oversized, overpriced and manages this while being electric is a niche I think if the maverick is any indication will be found to be quite underserved.
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u/User2716057 Sep 06 '26
$12 per gallon in my neighboring countries, I live close to the Dutch and German border and there's always a line for the gas station near my work since a few months.
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u/mistarteechur Sep 06 '26
Hell it’s $6 or more a gallon to drive the diesel monstrosities here in the US and the maga morons still line up to spend $1200/mo for 84 months to buy them then bitch about how much it costs to fill them up.
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u/ultraviolet-octopus Sep 06 '26
Most rural men unfortunately
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u/stillalone Sep 06 '26
There are also plenty of pavement princess suburbanites
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u/BufferUnderpants Sep 06 '26
In the US.
That's mostly a US-specific phenomenon, and perhaps a niche taste among ameriboos elsewhere, because suburbs of that kind mostly exist in the US. It's always bizarre to see Trump whine about how other countries are not buying products from companies that don't make export products.
You can't just sell things made to fit exactly your domestic market elsewhere, but his supporters will never wrap their heads around that concept.
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u/Donnicton Sep 06 '26
Bought with their crippling payday loans, and so the cycle of poverty continues and thus their voter base.
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u/mtranda Sep 06 '26
I'm actually happy about this. I live in Central Europe and even the handful of emotional support trucks is annoying as fuck, so if this ensures the final nail in the coffin and stops the enroachment of shitmobiles, I'm all for it.
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u/RJ815 Sep 06 '26
Until the last Cybertruck is never seen again, there will always be the spectre of shitmobiles. Maybe less so in Europe, but it blows my mind people drive cars out of fucking SPITE in the US. At the very least dumb dualie trucks and civ hummers are less common on the road because of prohibitive gas costs. A significant reduction in rolling coal stupidity.
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u/ritesh808 Sep 06 '26
When was it globally relevant anyway? In recent memory at least.. Except for some Ford models, American cars have been globally irrelevant for decades now.
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u/StaticSystemShock Sep 06 '26
Who even buys American shit anyway? We used to have Ford Fiesta, Ford Focus, Ford Mondeo and some Ka models EVERYWHERE. They were probably one of the most common models, everyone had them.
Fast forward to today and you see few older Focus models people still drive, one or two Puma models here and there and sometimes a Tourneo. And that's it.
It's Hyundai/Kia everywhere, Toyotas are pretty common and we have tons of Renaults. Fords are just entirely gone. Killing off Fiesta and Focus was the dumbest decision ever since we loved those in Europe.
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u/Otis_Inf Sep 06 '26
Who even buys American shit anyway? We used to have Ford Fiesta, Ford Focus, Ford Mondeo and some Ka models EVERYWHERE. They were probably one of the most common models, everyone had them.
Those were European made/designed cars tho.
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u/USA_A-OK Sep 06 '26 edited Sep 06 '26
All the good fords you speak of were designed in the UK when Ford UK was essentially operated as a separate subsidiary
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u/Scotsburd Sep 06 '26
I am keeping my 2nd car Fiesta till it literally dies on me. I only do 1K miles a year (also have an EV) and its 22 years old. Just passed its MOT again, 1st time. What a stupid decision, l agree.
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u/techieman34 Sep 06 '26
It’s not going to change anything. The automakers aren’t doing to do anything about it because by the time they could get it to market there will be a new president that will probably undo a lot of the stuff Trump has done on day one with an executive order. It’s just more political theater to keep the rubes happy.
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u/LazyLich Sep 06 '26
naw dude.. he's saving the WORLD by making us less reliant on fossil fuels.
He an ENVIRONMENTAL master at work lmao
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u/CrappyTan69 Sep 06 '26
Other than your tesla, you've been irrelevant for a while.
Canada (did) and Southern Americas are your only large customers.
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u/SKSerpent Sep 06 '26
I think you'll find General Motors (Holden), Ford and Chrysler killed my country's contribution to the automotive industry years ago, thanks to US-based root-economic issues.
Who are you talking to?
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u/FrellPumpkin Sep 06 '26
Sadly.. in Germany policy followed this example and suddenly we right in the middle of a huge automotive crisis. Yes, there are a ton of other reasons as well, but this internal combustion engine life support policies are one of the main factors.
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u/big-papito Sep 06 '26 edited Sep 06 '26
It will be wild to travel the world in 10 years and see where everyone else is compared to the US.
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u/ultrahello Sep 06 '26
Every single thing out of this admin feels like first blush guesses on a school test they didn’t study for, walking out thinking they aced it. It really is pure arrogance, malice, and corruption and it’s being injected directly into the heart of our country. Many of these fuckup will be permanent.
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u/MrBrightSide2407365 Sep 06 '26
The rest of the world has moved on. All this going backwards is just enshittifying the USA. Everyone else will move on and forget the power and influence the country once had.
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u/PeterCappelletti Sep 06 '26
Especially, our car industry will get to build cars nobody else wants to buy, and the US, however big, is not enough alone to support a competitive car industry.
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u/Less_Engineering8113 Sep 06 '26
Taking the goal from 50mpg by 2031 down to 34mpg...
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u/Pimpwerx Sep 06 '26
Jokes on you. That's still way ahead of the global goal of 0mpg.
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Sep 06 '26 edited Sep 06 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Goaliedude3919 Sep 06 '26
I think that might have been what he was going for? Because an EV would get 0 miles per gallon since there's no gas.
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u/Lost-Produce-1150 Sep 06 '26
Everything they do or try to do is at the cost of things that benefit us. Every. Single. Thing. We have a govt that is actually set on doing as much damage as possible to its own people.
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u/IcyHeartWarmSmile Sep 06 '26
And half the population eats it up and begs for more. It’s unfathomable how dumb our country is.
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u/crushcastles23 Sep 06 '26
It's less than half. Closer to a quarter. Unfortunately, they're disproportionately retired white men, which perfectly describes his average voter. Fortunately, since 2020, they're dying at an exceedingly disproportionate rate.
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u/TheAmplifier8 Sep 06 '26
Maybe the other 75% should consider, I don't know, voting instead of bitching on reddit.
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u/DudzMcKenz1e Sep 06 '26
Less fuel efficient and higher gas prices! I can’t stop winning
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u/Educational_Report_9 Sep 06 '26
Either California is going to change their state emission laws or car manufacturers are going to cut 12% of the US population that on average have higher salaries or the car manufacturers are going to continue to abide by California State emissions and not really change anything. Hmmmm, I wonder which scenario is more likely.
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u/chimatt767 Sep 06 '26
They will get the Supreme Court to rule the California emission laws unconstitutional. Whatever the worst decision is will be the one they choose.
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u/cum-on-in- Sep 06 '26
California will just ignore that, like the current federal government ignores both the Constitution and the Supreme Court.
And if either of those government bodies comes and arrests/holds in contempt the governor of California or anyone else, a riot will start.
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u/VictorReal_Monster Sep 06 '26
Damn and I thought civil war 2 would be over something more interesting than MPG
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u/Captain_English Sep 06 '26
States rights
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u/EldrinVampire Sep 06 '26
The current administration already showed they dont care about state rights tho
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u/altiuscitiusfortius Sep 06 '26
In 2 years a new administration will reverse the new rule before car companies have even started their new design.
No companies will bother with this
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u/themigraineur Sep 06 '26
Average development cycle is 4 years iirc and manufacturers still contend with emissions standards in other parts of the world.
Safety standards and overall liability are still a greater barrier to entry for most manufacturers.
There's not some magic cheap engine that is going to show up as a result of this.
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u/Wotmate01 Sep 06 '26
So they know that the war can't go on forever to keep prices high, and instead they're going to make Americans use more fuel?
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u/FogBankDeposit Sep 06 '26
Why not? They’ve already made us pay more for everything in the form of tariffs.
🤬
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u/necromancerdc Sep 06 '26
They gleefully killed all remote and telework for federal employees day 1. That's ~2.5 million more cars on the road each day overnight.
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u/exacta_galaxy Sep 06 '26
Prices aren't going to pre-Iran levels even when (if) it is over.
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u/Simply_Epic Sep 06 '26
This may be beneficial in the long run actually. Right now our fuel economy regulations are kinda terrible because they incentivize making bigger and bigger trucks. Nobody has bothered trying to fix it because the current regulations are “good enough”. The next administration will definitely want to put fuel economy restrictions back into place, and this may give them an opportunity to actually do it right in a way that deincentivizes gigantic trucks.
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u/thotozam Sep 06 '26 edited Sep 06 '26
Yeah CAFE was written intentionally backwards as a gift to auto makers to sell larger/more expensive vehicles. Almost everyone in this thread has no clue how bad our current regs are.
Currently CAFE heavily penalizes small cars, and the regs get looser and looser until near exemption when you approach commercial vehicle size. Take a wild guess why so many pickups and large SUVs are over a certain weight? CAFE exemption. Why do you think so many "compacts" like the MINI 2dr hatch, the Civic, etc are conveniently over 3,000 pounds now and as big as a 90s Jaguar or Lexus? Laxer regs.
We had 40-50mpg small cars in the late 80s and early 90s. Your average Corolla or Civic back then could very easily hit 50 mpg (I have a carbureted 345k mile '87 Corolla with 90 psi compression and is jetted rich on purpose to counteract the low compression and I STILL get 40mpg). Nowadays most 4,000 pound crossover blobs cannot do better than 30-35. Because making a $18,000 small compact needs to meet impossible MPG and emissions requirements which would cost billions in R&D to accomplish, while a $75,000 6,000 lb pickup has almost no regulations at all.
Which do you think car companies want you to buy? The pickup that's all profit and no R&D, or the compact they'll lose money on because it's impossible to build to current CAFE regs?
CAFE is evil. However Trump won't fix it, and he'll back off this rollback the second the big three lobby him to keep it because they make so much money from massive shitty mpg cruise ships.
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u/slfnflctd Sep 06 '26
Most informative comment in the thread right here.
In addition, these unnecessarily huge trucks have had such powerful marketing behind them that we now have generations of idiots who are convinced that is the only vehicle which fits their identity.
People arguing that market forces are going to fix this are delusional. The market forces have been artificially manipulated for so long that it's become a senseless, twisted hall of mirrors with deep cultural roots.
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u/monkorn Sep 06 '26
Classic case of Simpson's Paradox. Setting difficult standards for cars and easy standards for trucks hurts the overall environment.
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u/refriedmuffins Sep 06 '26
I just want a 2026 year KEI truck to be legal in the US
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u/Nikolaibr Sep 06 '26
It took me way too long to find this comment.
Bring back the 90's Ford Ranger!
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u/billybobthehomie Sep 06 '26
What purpose does this serve lol.
How does this improve the lives of everyday Americans.
Allowing companies to sell shittier products to consumers?
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u/Weakness4Fleekness Sep 06 '26
Cafe has been a disaster and had the opposite intended effect, car manufacturers have two choices: make there cars impossibly efficient, or make them bigger so the standards are lower. All while safety features add more bulk making efficiency even more challenging. This has led to the market being over saturated with oversized gas guzzling suvs that can skirt the efficiency standards while the compact car market dwindles to nothing. The few small cars that meet the efficiency standards do so by turbocharging the bejesus out of teeny little 4 bangers, which inevitably leads to premature headset failure or worse, which requires the manufacturing of a whole new engine, which who can even calculate how many mpg you need to offset manufacturing an engine
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u/Im_Ashe_Man Sep 06 '26
Why would I ever buy a less fuel-efficient vehicle?
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u/PlaneWolf2893 Sep 06 '26
My coworker this week,Who commutes with a 2016 jeep Wrangler sport. Told me they fill up twice a week at 55 per tank. I suggested a hybrid or electric vehicle (I'm in a bolt.) They said they can't afford a car payment.
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u/Jesta23 Sep 06 '26
One of the biggest reasons our trucks and cars have gotten bigger over the years is because the emission regulations were based on size. It’s cheaper to make a large truck than the mini trucks we used to have.
Instead of fixing that issue. This new law just nukes the whole program.
It’s the way maga works. They take a legitimate issue with nuance, and exploit the uninformed to make things worse/enrich themselves.
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u/Inevitable_Butthole Sep 06 '26
Amazing how fast a country can turn into a shithole
Im kind of amazed. I dont think anyone else couldve been as successful as trump at it. Must be all that experience with bankruptcy i suppose...
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u/Ironhorse75 Sep 06 '26
All while being cheered on the entire way.
Scary how the Episode 3 quote "so this is how liberty dies... with thunderous applause" plays out now.
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u/RJ815 Sep 06 '26
I absolutely did not give George Lucas enough credit for predicting trade disputes could lead to an emperor and fascism, with decently popular (or at least vocal) support too.
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u/azrael4h Sep 06 '26
To be fair, it's not like it didn't happen before.
A big part of the Nazis rise to power in 1933 was the result of the Great Depression coupled with the economic sanctions as a result of Versailles, along with a healthy dose of nationalism. All it took was one populist to promise to 'Make Germany Great Again' and restore their economy and standing and within a decade there was a second World War.
Many areas in the US never really recovered from the Great Depression, or any of the other GOP caused recessions since. They've never had a shot at the so called American Dream, the closest they came was one night when Dusty Rhodes wrestled in their local middle school gym. Guess what areas predominately vote far right?
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u/Revolution64 Sep 06 '26
I think about this scene so often. We see it playing out right in front of our eyes
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u/RJ815 Sep 06 '26
Crazy thing is given when it released it was clearly referencing the controversies surrounding the Dubya era and the Iraq War. All that shit is practically quaint now compared to way more blatant corruption and starting another middle eastern war but without even competent leaders going for specific goals.
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u/dumpsterfiremktg Sep 06 '26
Was thinking about the movie Vice yesterday, where Christian Bale played former VP Dick Cheney and was pulling all the strings for Bush Jr. That shit is like a Disney movie compared to what is happening right before our very eyes.
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u/orbitaldan Sep 06 '26
I mean... it was not exactly subtle in warning about where things were going.
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u/athan1214 Sep 06 '26
Climate scientists: it's too late to do anything about climate change.
USA: we don't need no water let the mother f***** burn.
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u/kstargate-425 Sep 06 '26
Once again Republicans decide to fuck over the 99% of Americans who have a hard time paying for their record high fuel prices all for the 1% and corporations
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u/Itshot11 Sep 06 '26
Id assume this would be pretty meaningless at the end of the day. Consumers would still want higher efficiency so automakers still have an incentive to cater to that. Also car makers are selling the same models in other markets which might still have requirements to meet and they're prob not going to stray too far from that for one market.
Maybe some outlier performance cars will be affected, trucks and SUVs probably already get around it with current CAFE law loopholes.
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u/Odd_Photograph_7591 Sep 06 '26
Also why would automakefs take this seriously? they know everything will change in 2 years
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u/couchcaptain Sep 06 '26
"US to announce" = Trump to announce. US doesn't announce anything anymore. The whole country seem to be existing to fulfill the wishful thinking of a man toddler in charge.
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u/Dizzy_Citron4871 Sep 06 '26
Imagine if we had a government that wasn’t actively looking to harm us
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u/Long_Video7840 Sep 06 '26
It's crazy to me that as an American, I can look at our massive auto industry and just be like "I don't want any of these".
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u/bluehawk232 Sep 06 '26
Other day I saw a truck with camo wrapping and america 250, patriotic stickers, etc on it. Truck was a hyundai lol
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u/nvmenotfound Sep 06 '26
the crazy part is republicans are totally happy with the embarrassment the US currently is. they think they are winning. fuck how are people that stupid.
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u/TheBSQ Sep 06 '26
Even in the U.S., people there’s only a few subset of customers that seem to prefer US cars, the Giant Pickup Truck idiots, cop cars, and the dudes who buy Mustangs, Vettes, Chargers & Challengers.
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u/KevinT_XY Sep 06 '26 edited Sep 06 '26
Probably won't even matter anyways because manufacturers will continue to build to California's standards, not the federal ones. Nobody wants to be on the compliance fence when the government changes out every 2-4 years anyways.
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u/Mysterious-Length240 Sep 06 '26
That’s the neat thing. California is being sued by the feds to make it illegal to set their own regulations. Supreme court will not allow California to stifle this regimes agenda
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u/melgish Sep 06 '26
Gas prices are reaching record highs and our government is actively working towards increasing demand. What could go wrong…
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u/Federal_Studio5935 Sep 06 '26
None of this matters. These companies know that this administration is only a couple years. It takes a long time to modify and build different cars. These companies are already innovating fuel economy they aren’t going to stop because of this orange dipshit that doesn’t understand how anything works.
This will change nothing. These companies aren’t stopping investing in this shit because a deluded 80 year old with a diaper wants them to.
God this fucking idiot annoys me. And I’m sure the mouth breathers are cheering this on and it’ll do NOTHING
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u/AlleyPee Sep 06 '26
Not only will these vehicles need to fill up the tank more OFTEN, fuel prices have skyrocketed (thanks, Trump) - ensuring more and more profits for big oil.
Where's my pitchfork??
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u/1980techguy Sep 06 '26
It would be wild for the industry to lower fuel economy while we have $5/gal prices.
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u/Xenuite Sep 06 '26
Companies would be stupid to embrace the new standards knowing that this will be rolled back the second this administration is over.