“American Automakers Refuse to Participate in Race to Make Accessible, Fuel-Efficient Vehicles”
Fixed that title for you, Verge.
American automakers are losing the race to make more fuel-efficient vehicles
Submitted 10 months ago by boem@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
Mystech@lemmy.world 10 months ago
spudwart@spudwart.com 10 months ago
They are, however, winning the race to make more gas guzzling profit generators that destroy this planet for the benefit of their shareholders.
Mamertine@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Which is apparently what the average consider wants or at least expects.
seejur@lemmy.world 10 months ago
American* consumer. Around the world most popular models are smaller than the American ones. And those expectations are driven by marketing from those car companies to circumvent the safety/emission laws set up for cars in the us
Poggervania@kbin.social 10 months ago
And of course, the US Auto industry loves light trucks and SUVs because of how fucked the CAFE standards are, meaning it’s cheaper and easier to create unsafe cars that are not only more dangerous to the environment, but also more dangerous to people and cities.
maynarkh@feddit.nl 10 months ago
And more dangerous to their drivers as well, because while they may “win” collisions, they also roll over much easier.
theyoyomaster@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Until the exemptions for “light trucks” go away this won’t change. The current CAFE standards reward automakers for making even larger, less efficient and more dangerous “passenger” vehicles every year.
ExLisper@linux.community 10 months ago
On top of that average lifetime of a car in US is 12 years so those car’s will be on the roads for a decade or two after exemptions are removed.
TheIllustrativeMan@lemmy.world 10 months ago
RainfallSonata@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Were they trying to win?
AnneBonny@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
Unchanged rules of CAFE standard remain stupid. In other news, water wet.
itsonlygeorge@reddthat.com 10 months ago
They lost this race to Japanese car manufacturers like 30 years ago.
mlg@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I thought they already lost during the OPEC oil crisis and then lobbied congress to put import restrictions on foreign cars to save themselves.
AA5B@lemmy.world 10 months ago
They did, decades ago. That is no longer an issue.
Now we have current efficiency standards that focus on cars. However trucks have much lower requirements because businesses might need additional capabilities. No individual would ever buy a truck as a personal vehicle , right? So you have these criteria meant to give a break to businesses, but ever larger vehicles mean that personal vehicles now also qualify. They can be made more cheap,ply, with more profit.
Somehow, they didn’t consider the criteria would be abused for more profitable personal vehicles
- Pickup truck? Clearly a contractor so let’s give you a break
- All wheel drive and high clearance? Clearly a rare specialty off-road vehicle that needs a break
- Seats 7+, even if they’re only toddlers? Clearly a transportation service, so needs a break in efficiency to carry more passengers -Tow hitch? Clearly in need of extra torque and heavy duty frame for whatever business need you’re towing
Rooskie91@discuss.online 10 months ago
How can you win when you’re running in the opposite direction?
BulbasaurBabu@lemmings.world 10 months ago
This just in: Obese Man perpetually on the couch isn’t going to finish the marathon, experts say.
cyd@lemmy.world 10 months ago
They are safe, because the Buy American provisions in recent legislation blocks them from competition by more fuel efficient foreign competitors. Thanks Biden.
gian@lemmy.grys.it 10 months ago
True, but in time they will be able to sell only in the US as their cars will not be allowed anywhere else. So if they will want to compete outside US, they will need two lines of the same products. Then they will realize that it will be less expensive to keep only the one that can sell in more places.
If they have not failed in the meantime.Nollij@sopuli.xyz 10 months ago
The classic definition of “American” cars has really fallen apart. Stellantis is an international consortium at the management level. GM and Ford have extensive manufacturing in Canada and Mexico. Honda, Toyota, VW, etc assemble most of their North American vehicles in the US. Parts come from all over the world. Even if the part assemblies are made in the US, supplies (or the component supplies) are globally sourced.
Phrased another way, can you really call it American if the lithium is mined in Africa, refined in China, assembled into a battery in Ohio, assembled as a car in Mexico, under the direction of a company headquartered in Detroit? Same for steel, glass, etc?
At what point does it become, or cease to be, an American car?
(In 1984, this question was directly answered by Honda, by creating their first assembly plant in Marysville, OH. Based on the laws at the time, this meant anything manufactured there qualified as an “American” car, not subject to import taxes and restrictions)
autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] 10 months ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Real-world fuel economy in model year 2022 rose slightly to 26 miles per gallon, according to the EPA’s latest Automotive Trends Report.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) finalized that rule back in 2022, and earlier this year, it proposed even higher standards for cars made between 2027 and 2032.
Numbers for real-world fuel economy tend to be about 25 percent lower than official compliance data might show, according to Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Transport Campaign at the Center for Biological Diversity.
Average fuel economy for Ford, General Motors, and Jeep and Dodge parent company Stellantis last year ranged between about 21mpg and 23mpg.
Supersized passenger vehicles burn through more gas than smaller cars, which also means that they create more tailpipe pollution that worsens air quality and causes climate change.
Fortunately, the emission rate for planet-heating carbon dioxide from new vehicles still dropped 3 percent to a record low last year, the EPA reports.
The original article contains 689 words, the summary contains 158 words. Saved 77%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Gerula@lemmy.world 10 months ago
It this Onion News? No one can use “american automakers” and “fuel-efficency” in the same phrase!
KISSmyOS@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Are you losing a race if you sit at home and ignore it?
vexikron@lemmy.zip 10 months ago
Yeah hah, they are largely not even in the race.
They are still able to sell SUVs and basically at this point road legal monster trucks to a consumer base that still cannot grasp the concept that they could do 99% of what they use a car for with a sedan or hatchback, and that 1% of the time just rent a uhaul… they could do that and save tons of money on gas with the greater fuel efficiency.
But American car owners are not exactly known for making rational decisions or being good drivers.
Much more important to flaunt status and lifestyle with a car.
Much more important.
phoneymouse@lemmy.world 10 months ago
The US government created this issue by exempting trucks and SUVs from fuel economy standards imposed on cars. That was the initial motivating factor behind car manufacturers pushing these large vehicles. Now it doesn’t upset car dealers that they can sell them for more money. Also, consumers feel safer in larger vehicles… largely because all the other vehicles on the road are now bigger and will do more harm to smaller vehicles. And, because it’s America, there is a special individualism factor baked in that prioritizes ego over rational sound decision making for the collective betterment of humanity and the environment.
eager_eagle@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Buyers feel safer in a taller car, and car dealers are happy to sell this bullshit, even though SUVs are far more likely to roll over in a crash.
helenslunch@feddit.nl 10 months ago
We could fix that in an instant by removing the astronomical fuel subsidies, but any sitting President would be instantly crucified because for some reason gas prices are indicative of how good the President is doing.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 10 months ago
You are an idiot if you think the consumer base wants larger vehicles. It is the manufacturers who want larger vehicles. Widen a car’s stance by 3 inches and lengthen it by 6 inches, and it’s suddenly in a class that allows higher emissions and lower economy.
Every manufacturer has killed off all of their subcompact options rather than even trying to meet the tightening standards for that class. The perverse incentives they have push them to build bigger.
Paradoxically, the only thing that is going to bring back efficient subcompacts is eliminating economy requirements on the smallest, most efficient class of car, rather than tightening them.
muffedtrims@lemmy.world 10 months ago
BuT mA FreEduMb!
AA5B@lemmy.world 10 months ago
This is also a downside to the cheap gasoline we’ve enjoyed in the US, relative to most of the world. There’s less incentive for us to make a more efficient choice
FinalRemix@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I have an ‘04 Impala that perfectly fits a cello in a hard case in the trunk, or belted into a passenger seat. My parents’ Highlander won’t fit that anywhere without folding something out of the way. How the fuck did we lose so much cargo space in a larger vehicle?!