The US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is proposing new fuel economy standards for passenger cars and light trucks and fuel efficiency standards for model years (MYs) 2027-31 that increase at a rate of 2% per year for passenger cars and 4% per year for light trucks, and new fuel efficiency standards for heavy-duty pickup trucks and vans (HDPUVs) for MYs 2030-2035 that increase at a rate of 10% per year.

NHTSA is also setting forth proposed augural standards for MY 2032 passenger cars and light trucks, that would increase at 2% and 4% year over year, respectively, as compared to the prior year’s standards.

NHTSA currently projects that the proposed standards would require an industry fleet-wide average for passenger cars and light trucks of roughly 58 miles per gallon (mpg) in MY 2032 and an industry fleet-wide average for HDPUVs of roughly 2.6 gallons per 100 miles in MY 2038.

A 60-day public comment period will begin after the proposal is published in the Federal Register.

NHTSA will engage with a broad set of stakeholders during this period, including consumers, unions, automakers, states, environmental groups and others. The proposal would also drive fuel efficiency improvements for heavy-duty pickup trucks and work vans.

NHTSA’s proposed fuel economy standards complement and align with the Environmental Protection Agency’s recently proposed emissions standards for similar vehicle fleets. NHTSA will coordinate with the EPA to optimize the effectiveness of its standards while minimizing compliance costs, consistent with applicable statutory factors.

Although NHTSA does not take electric and other alternative fuels into account in setting the standards, manufacturers may use all available technologies—including advanced internal combustion engines, hybrid technologies and electric vehicles—for compliance.

The proposal also models a range of additional alternatives. NHTSA requests comment on the full range of standards from the no-action alternative to the most stringent alternative modeled, including comment on combinations of standards that may not be explicitly identified in the proposal.