President Donald Trump said Saturday on Truth Social that he had “just approved new Fuel Economy Standards,” setting up a formal replacement of the Biden administration’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy requirements. According to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the administration will announce the change Monday, when the new standards are expected to be finalized.
Under the Biden rules, the industry faced a fleetwide CAFE target near 50.4 mpg across cars and light trucks by the 2031 model year. A December proposal would have eased that to about 34.5 mpg over the same timeframe. Trump called the previous policy a “ridiculous EV Mandate.” He said the new standards would cut car prices, restart idled plants and restore jobs.
In his post, Trump also said the earlier policy “forced Americans into cars they never wanted” while wasting “billions on chargers that were never built.” He said more than $100 billion is flowing into U.S. automaking under his administration, then said “that’s just the beginning.”
The rollback gives automakers more freedom to keep offering combustion vehicles without depending so heavily on hybrids and EVs. Combustion models can carry lower prices than comparable hybrids. The average U.S. new-car transaction price surpassed $50,000 in December. Congress, meanwhile, has already stripped the fines levied on automakers that miss mileage targets, a change worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the industry.
The move follows a broader reversal of EV-friendly policy. The federal $7,500 EV tax credit lapsed at the end of September 2025, contributing to a sharp slowdown in the U.S. EV market. In February, the Environmental Protection Agency scrapped every federal limit on greenhouse gas pollution from cars, and Congress barred California from imposing its own tougher emissions limits.
Previously, President Trump had called EV drivers “crazy” and said they have a disease.
The announcement lands amid rising fuel prices. According to AAA, the national average for regular reached $4.48 on Saturday, up from $3.14 a year earlier. In California it hit $6.33, up from $4.64. The state still offers first-time buyers an instant rebate of as much as $3,500 toward qualifying new zero-emission vehicles, plus as much as $1,750 for qualifying used models.