New EPA Light Vehicle Emissions standards are now final through model year 2031. There are multiple ways a global automaker can meet the standards and avoid fines. Key here will be the flexible development and manufacturing of powertrain technologies to meet compliance and avoid non-compliance penalties. The standard means a maker will pay $17.00 per tenth of a mile per gallon under the requirement.

For those of you who inhabit the Trump Washington swamp and have misinformation fever, Trump did not decrease the standards as he promised. Incremental increases were slowed down a bit. Enter the Biden Administration, which basically went back to the sharp CAFE increases that occurred under the Obama Administration. Simply put, CAFÉ will increase because of the significant fines for non-compliance now in place.

Moreover and potentially planet saving – pure EVs, PHEVs and hybrids will continue to grow and displace traditional internal combustion engines. In yet another twist, another way to improve vehicle efficiency is reducing vehicle mass. So yes, vehicles sold in America are going on a diet.

This, of course, will all be fought out in an extremely competitive market place. So going forward you pays your money to make a choice from a bewildering variety of vehicles. It is possible, nay plausible, that vehicles with internal combustion engines will be priced out of the market as hybrid and EV prices decline.