The US imposes heavy fines on car companies with gas-guzzling cars

The US National Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has imposed increased fines on car manufacturers that do not meet the fuel consumption regulations for vehicles from 2019 to the present. This decision is a victory for Tesla while could cost other automakers hundreds of millions of dollars or more.

Previously, the administration of former president Donald Trump in the last days of his term, in January 2021, delayed a new regulation in 2016 about imposing double fines on car manufacturers that do not meet fuel consumption standards. CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) data since model year 2019.

NHTSA’s regulation was signed on March 24 and will take effect 60 days after being published on the US government portal.

Accordingly, the car model year 2019-2021 will have a fine of 14 USD, up from 5.5 USD, for every 2.35 liters per 100 km exceeding the standard fuel consumption, and multiplied by the number of cars sold. . For cars of the 2022 model year, the fine is 15 USD.

In the US, the current average fuel consumption standard for passenger cars is 8.55 liters per 100 km. The government’s goal is to impose a standard of 4.3 liters per 100 km by 2025. Increasingly strict regulations aim to improve the fuel economy of cars, while reducing emissions – the main factor causing the effect. Greenhouse.

For example, if a car has a fuel consumption of 10.9 liters / 100 km (2.45 liters / 100 km higher than the standard), the company sells 10,000 units, the fine will be 150,000 USD.

Automakers, which opposed the increase in fines in 2016, warned it could increase the industry’s costs by at least a billion dollars a year.

However, automakers can avoid fines by buying back limits from rivals, typically from electric car manufacturers. This is similar to when they buy-sell emission limit each other’s.

America – England (according to Reuters)