What is the penalty for not meeting CAFE requirements for any given model year (MY)?
The penalty for failing to meet CAFE standards recently increased from $5.00 to $5.50 per tenth of a mile per gallon for each tenth under the target value times the total volume of those vehicles manufactured for a given model year. Since 1983, manufacturers have paid more than $500 million in civil penalties. Most European manufacturers regularly pay CAFE civil penalties ranging from less than $1 million to more than $20 million annually. Asian and domestic manufacturers have never paid a civil penalty. For MY 2002, five passenger car fleets including BMW, DaimlerChrysler import, Fiat, Lotus, and Porsche are projected to fail to meet 27.5 mpg passenger car CAFE standard. In addition, two light truck fleets including BMW and Volkswagen will likely fail to meet the light truck CAFE standard of 20.7 mpg. Final Reports for MY 2002 provided by the EPA to NHTSA in mid-calendar year of 2003 may adjust these projections favorably.
