What is the penalty for noncompliance for a given MY and how is it calculated?
The current penalty for failing to meet CAFE standards is $5.50 per tenth of a MPG under the target value times the total volume of those vehicles manufactured for a given model year. Since 1983, manufacturers have paid more than $590 million in CAFE civil penalties. Most European manufacturers regularly pay CAFE civil penalties ranging from less than $1 million to more than $20 million annually. Asian and most of the big domestic manufacturers have never paid a civil penalty. For MY 2002, five imported passenger car fleets, including BMW, Daimler Chrysler, Fiat, Lotus and Porsche are projected to fail to meet the 27.5 mpg passenger car CAFE standard. In addition, two light truck fleets, including BMW and Volkswagen are projected to fail to meet the light truck CAFE standard of 20.7 mpg. When NHTSA finds that a manufacturer is not in compliance, it notifies the manufacturer. Surplus credits generated from the three previous years can be used to make up the deficit. Using the example fr
