wilber1 wrote:
Ford has discontinued building small cars in North America, GM discontinuing the Cruz and Volt. That won't do anything for average fuel economy.
Actually eliminating the small cars lowers the average fleet fuel economy because it increases their fleets average footprint. As you can see in the chart below, the target fuel economy a manufacturer has to achieve is also based on the footprint(bottom of graph) and classification of the vehicles they sell. The greater the average footprint in vehicles sold, the lower the fuel economy requirement and visa versa. So if you mainly sell trucks, then it would benefit you to stop selling cars that have a lower footprint because it reduces your mileage requirement. The more cars you sell in your total amount of vehicles sold, the greater your mileage requirement.
Notice in MY2012 a company with an corporate average footprint of 40 sq ft had to achieve a fleet average fuel economy of 36 mpg while a company with a higher 60 sq ft average footprint only had to achieve a fleet average of 28 mpg. In MY2020, a company with a 40 sg ft footprint average will need to attain a 49 mpg fleet average while a company with a 60 sq ft average will have to attain a 37 mpg fleet average. A manufacturer will have to find the right balance in vehicles they sell(cars, trucks, SUV's) to the average fuel economy they can achieve.
wilber1 wrote:
They are doing it because the big bucks are in trucks, SUV's and luxury sedans.
Not exactly, they are doing it to increase the corporate footprint which means they will have a lower fuel economy average they have to hit before being fined. Notice all three announced that they will stop making cars about the same time. That was because the NHTSA announced that fines for not meeting CAFE will increase dramatically not too long before all of them announced it.
