The long road to better fuel economy
In the 1950s, California researcher Arie Haagen-Smit made the connection between car exhaust and the smoggy skies over Los Angeles. Since then, Congress has authorized the EPA — which was created by President Richard Nixon in 1970 — to regulate emissions from automobiles and other moving sources of emissions, such as by providing incentives for manufacturers to improve engine design and develop higher quality fuels.
The push for more fuel-efficient vehicles began with the 1973 oil crisis, when the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries imposed an embargo on the United States and many of its allies for their support of Israel. Until the embargo, fuel efficiency wasn't a key selling point for car buyers: In the 1970s, most vehicles had a fuel economy of just 12 miles per gallon.
In 1975, Congress passed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, which established the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, which required new passenger vehicles to have a fuel economy of 27.5 mpg by 1985. The CAFE standards and EPA regulatory policies contributed to increases in fuel efficiency in the 1970s. From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, the demand for SUVs gained momentum. Larger vehicles resulted in higher fuel consumption and lower fuel economy. In 2007, Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act, which raised the target efficiency for new vehicles to 35 mpg by 2020.
Growing environmental concerns and incentives from local, federal and state governments have motivated consumers to gradually switch to electric vehicles, contributing to massive efficiency gains in recent years. Electric cars have greater fuel efficiency than their gas-powered counterparts, with…
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