Trump Rolls Back Biden Fuel Economy Rules: What Changes for Cars
On September 26, 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump announced new fuel economy standards that roll back requirements adopted under former President Joe Biden. Al Jazeera
In a social media post that day, Trump said the standards would "TERMINATE" what he called Biden's "EV mandate." He claimed they would lower car prices and push automakers to build more vehicles in the United States.
There is no federal law or rule that forces Americans to buy electric cars or bans the sale of gasoline cars.
The system at issue is CAFE, short for Corporate Average Fuel Economy. Congress created it in 1975. It sets an average miles-per-gallon target across the cars and light trucks each automaker sells, like a grade-point average for a full fleet.
Under rules finalized in 2024, the Biden administration required that fleetwide average to rise from 39.1 miles per gallon to about 50.4 miles per gallon by 2031. For cars, the schedule called for 8% yearly gains for model years 2024 and 2025, 10% for 2026, and 2% a year from 2027 to 2031. Reuters
In December 2025, Trump proposed setting the fleetwide average for light-duty vehicles at roughly 34.5 miles per gallon by 2031. That is more than 30 percent lower than the Biden rule. The White House published a fact sheet on the reset of CAFE standards. White House Trump said the reset brings targets back to levels that conventional gasoline and diesel vehicles can meet.
For passenger cars, NHTSA proposed a 0.5% increase per year for model years 2023 through 2026. In December 2025, NHTSA was expected to propose much lower requirements for 2022 through 2031. On January 30, 2026, NHTSA sent manufacturers a letter stating its plan to reset efficiency standards for heavy-duty pickups and vans.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy reposted Trump's September 26, 2026 announcement and said an announcement would be "COMING MONDAY." Full details are still pending. Duffy said the rollback would cut at least $1,000 from the price of vehicles bought in America. Department of Transportation NHTSA estimated the proposed rollback would cut average up-front vehicle costs by $930. Reuters
The administration has also eased tailpipe emissions rules, ended fines for automakers that miss targets, and ended consumer credits of up to $7,500 for electric vehicle purchases.
The broader context here is the trade-off between what a car costs to buy and how much fuel the national fleet uses. A lower average eases pressure to add fuel-saving technology or sell more electric cars to meet the math, a link the administration makes to price and U.S. production. For automakers, the open questions are the final year-by-year targets, how light trucks are treated compared with passenger cars, and how NHTSA lines up CAFE with tailpipe rules, fines policy and heavy-duty standards. The steps from the December proposal to the January letter to the September announcement point to a multi-step reset, not a single order.
