GM pursues national standard for gas mileage

Plan has requirement for zero-emissions cars

DETROIT — General Motors officials say they will ask the federal government for one national gas mileage standard, including a requirement that a percentage of auto companies’ sales be zero-emissions vehicles.

Mark Reuss, GM’S executive vice president of product development, said the company will propose that a certain percentage of nationwide sales be made up of vehicles that run on electricity or hydrogen fuel cells.

“A national zero-emissions program will drive the scale and infrastructure investments needed to allow the U.S. to lead the way to a zero-emissions future,” Reuss said.

GM, the nation’s largest automaker, spelled out the request Friday in written comments on a Trump administration plan to roll back Obama-era fuel economy and emissions standards, freezing them at 2020 levels instead of making them tougher.

Under a rule by the Environmental Protection Agency at the end of the Obama administration, the fleet of new automobiles would have to get 36 miles per gallon by 2025, 10 miles per gallon higher than the current requirement.

But the Trump administration’s preferred plan is to freeze the standards starting in 2021. Administration officials say waiving the tougher fuel efficiency requirements would make vehicles more affordable.

GM on Thursday said it doesn’t support the freeze but wants flexibility to deal with consumers’ shift from cars to less-efficient SUVS and trucks.

Its proposed requirement would be based on current standards required in California and nine other states.

GM’S proposal would set lower zero-emissions vehicle requirements than California but spread them to the entire nation.

Federal and California gas mileage standards have been the same since 2010. But if President Donald Trump’s administration relaxes the requirements, it could create two standards, one for California and states that follow it, and another for the rest of the nation.