Fuel efficient vehicles are a major topic of conversation in the automotive industry right now and rightfully so. It's one of the first things that car buyers are looking at when deciding on whether to purchase a new vehicle and with gas prices on a seemingly never ending upward spiral, it's easy to understand why.
This is one of the main reasons that Volkswagen has been in discussions with the Obama Administration regarding achieving fuel economy standards for 2017-2025. These standards would be imposed on all automakers during that window, so the numbers they arrive at need to be achievable and realistic.
What's surprising is that most automakers have signed onto an agreement to boost fuel efficiency standards to a fleet-wide average of 54.5mpg standard by 2025. That seems huge and begs to question just what exactly are the plans to accomplish this daunting task in the next decade?
Volkswagen of America's President and Chief Executive Jonathan Browning said that the plan needs to be "equitable" across all makes because the current plan is skewed towards light trucks and that puts passenger cars at a disadvantage and may push them towards solutions that may meet the requirements, but then go in the wrong direction as far as polluting the environment.
Regardless of the end result, consumers can expect more vehicles with much better gas mileage in the near future and if the plan pans out the way it's anticipated, it will double the current requirements. The main question is whether it will indeed lead to a dirtier environment as carmakers are forced to get to numbers they may not be able to attain using options that may be cleaner and less polluting. We can only wait to see how it all pans out and if it gives the diesel folks something to consider.
Great news from across the pond as the first 2012 Mitsubishi i rolls off of the line and bound for the United States and are set to arrive in November in Hawaii, California, Washington and Oregon, but no word on when we'll see it in the Southeast.