US Auto Lobby Chief Asks Trump to Ease Fuel-Efficiency Rules

(Bloomberg) -- An auto trade group asked US President-Elect Donald Trump to ease requirements on making vehicles more fuel efficient and to protect the industry from “unfair” practices by China.

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John Bozzella, president of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which lobbies for most major automakers such as Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co., Stellantis NV, Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp., said in a letter to Trump that was made public on Thursday that automakers are facing “headwinds” such as “unfair competition from heavily subsidized electric vehicles and technologies imported from China.”

He also highlighted emissions rules on the federal and state level, “particularly in California and affiliated states,” that drive up costs to consumers and are difficult for carmakers to comply with.

“Even as automakers invest in an increasingly connected, automated and electrified vehicle fleet, they face unprecedented geopolitical and market pressures,” Bozzella wrote in the letter, which was dated Nov. 12.

The incoming Trump administration is widely expected to roll back US fuel economy standards enacted by the Biden administration that require carmakers to achieve an average of more than 50 miles per gallon across all their vehicles by 2031.

The Trump administration is likely to also target California’s right to set tougher gas mileage rules than the federal government in order to limit pollution in its state, which is ensconced in the 1970 US Clean Air Act. California, as well as states including Oregon and Colorado, are exempt from rules that preempt them from enacting their own emissions standards for new vehicles. More than a dozen states representing more than a third of the US auto market now have formally opted to follow California’s rules.

The federal government and California battled over auto emissions throughout Trump’s first term.

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