EXCLUSIVE: President Donald Trump’s Wednesday afternoon announcement will unveil a “reset” of federal fuel standards that heightened under the Biden administration, which the White House said will save “$109 billion in total” for American families, Fox News Digital learned.
“As America’s largest auto producer, we appreciate President Trump’s leadership in aligning fuel economy standards with market realities,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said ahead of the announcement. “We can make real progress on carbon emissions and energy efficiency while still giving customers choice and affordability. This is a win for customers and common sense.”
Fox News Digital learned that Ford’s and Stellantis’ CEOs, as well as General Motors’ plant manager, will gather in the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon, where Trump will announce a “historic reset of the CAFE standards that were created by the Biden administration,” according to the White House.
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Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE standards, first enacted in 1975, are government regulations for the average fuel efficiency of a vehicle fleet that aim to lower emissions.
Trump rolled back aggressive standards put forth by the Obama administration under his first term in office, with Biden subsequently resetting and tightening the CAFE standards under his administration.
The Biden administration, for example, boosted fuel efficiency requirements by 8% for 2024 and 2025 model years and 10% for 2026, which was far higher than Trump’s 1.5% that was finalized under his first term and applied to car model years 2021–2026. The Trump White House argued that the aggressive standards set under the Biden-era were not feasible to meet with available technologies for gas cars, and that the standards would have compelled consumers to shift to electric vehicles.
The White House said the Biden-era regulations would have raised the average cost of a new car by nearly $1,000, relative to the cost under these reset standards, and that Trump’s actions would save American families $109 billion.
Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa added in comment ahead of the announcement that the company looks forward to continuing working with the administration to “allow us to offer our customers the freedom to choose the vehicles they want at prices they can afford.”
“Stellantis appreciates the Trump Administration’s actions to re-align the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards with real world market conditions as part of its wider vision for a growing US automotive industry. We look forward to working further with NHTSA on environmentally responsible policies that also allow us to offer our customers the freedom to choose the vehicles they want at prices they can afford,” Filosa said.
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“GM supports the goals of NHTSA’s proposed CAFE rule and its intention to better align fuel economy standards with market realities,” GM said in comment to Fox News Digital ahead of the event. “We have long advocated for one national standard that upholds customer choice and provides the auto industry long-term stability. As we review the proposal, we remain committed to offering the best and broadest portfolio of electric and gas-powered vehicles on the market.”
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Trump has taken a series of actions since his return to the Oval Office that specifically target vehicles and environmental regulations that he has argued are intended to force electric vehicles on the general public, while driving up costs. In June, Trump signed a joint resolution that effectively ended California’s electric vehicle mandate.
The joint resolution ended California’s plan to end the sale of gasoline-only vehicles by 2035, including one ending a waiver issued by the Biden-era EPA that mandated at least 80% of vehicles be electric vehicles in California by 2035, as well as ended the Biden-era EPA’s approval of a plan to increase the number of zero-emission heavy-duty trucks in California.
Under Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act — which was a massive piece of legislation Trump signed into law in July that advances his agenda on taxes, immigration, energy, defense and the national debt — civil penalties for violating CAFE standards were dropped to $0, which protected the car industry from significant fines.
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