Trump Administration Is Working Hard To Make Cars Less Efficient During Historic High Gas Prices They Caused
It seems increasingly deranged and confusing things come out of the White House every day, but especially from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. On Monday, during a speech Duffy delivered in Sterling Heights, Michigan, the former-turned-current reality TV contestant told the crowd, "You know the on/off, start/stop button on your car? I hate that thing. Thank you Lee Zeldin. He's gotten rid of it and the first cars without the start/stop button are rolling off the line."
Sean Duffy: "You know the stop/start button on your car? I hate that thing. Thank you Lee Zeldin! He's gotten rid of it and the first cars without the stop/start button are rolling off the line."
If you're like me, you have three questions from just this one bizarre statement. Firstly, what the hell is he actually talking about? Second, what factory does this Lee Zeldin own that are rolling cars off a line without this ubiquitous piece of technology? And third, why are we even talking about this now, since the EPA rescinded the off-cycle credit for auto start/stop in cars back in February? Explore this stupidity with me, won't you?
What exactly is he talking about?
Duffy makes a motion of pressing a button, and mentions buttons, so you might think he's talking about push-to-start ignitions. Jalopnik reached out to the Department of Transportation for clarification but, wouldn't you know it, the Trump administration has never once returned our e-mails.
The way he worded this whole thing is confusing, but we're almost positive Duffy is actually talking about auto start/stop, that feature that turns a car's engine off at stop signs and red lights, then kicks the engine back on when the throttle is applied. The technology has been around since the 1970s, and it became practically standard on a ton of (but not all) consumer cars over the last two decades. It started showing up in U.S. vehicles right around the time gas prices first soared to over $4 a gallon in 2009.
Auto start/stop is an incredibly effective way to save on fuel and reduce air pollution, especially during city driving in urban areas. The feature is proven to save a significant amount of gas, which also translates into saving money for the consumer. A study by the Society of Automotive Engineers found that auto start/stop can save drivers anywhere between 7% and 26% in fuel costs for a feature that now costs almost nothing for automakers to install. Naturally, the Trump Administration can't have that.
What cars is he talking about?
The second question his statement raises: What factory does this Lee Zeldin own that are rolling cars off a line without this bog-standard piece of technology? None. Zeldin is not an automaker, but the director of the Environmental Protection Agency, a cushy job if ever there was one given that the Trump Administration has zero interest in any environmental protection. But I'm a curious little cat, and I have a job that lets me just call up automakers and ask, "Hey, are you actually cutting auto stop/start tech out of your cars?" So I did just that. Duffy said cars without this feature are "rolling off the lines," so I reached out to the top 25 automakers who sell cars in the U.S. to find out if they're really doing away with auto start/stop.
Not every automaker has replied to my question, but some of the public relations folks who have gotten back to me responded with a vague "We're always keeping an eye on the regulatory landscape," while the most common response has been, "Wait, what now?" Most said they'd get back to me with a definitive answer, which personally strikes me as proof that removing this bland piece of fuel-saving functionality ain't at the top of anyone's to-do list. I will update this post as more automakers get back to me, but since this credit rollback was initiated in February and we haven't seen an outpouring of automakers tossing auto start/stop aside in the last seven months, I think it's fair to say the tech is staying.
Why is Sean Duffy talking about this now?
The Trump Administration is removing such regulations in a mealy mouthed attempt to look like they are addressing the affordability crisis. Trump is polling badly going into the U.S. midterms, partially due to citizens feeling the pinch of their overstretched pocketbooks. It's no secret that cars are incredibly, historically expensive right now along with everything else. Pointless trade wars (and endless real ones) aren't making things any cheaper. The average cost of a new car in America is around $50,000, and Trump and friends believe this price spike is due to regulations on things like safety regulations and fuel efficiency and not, say, the crazy amount of high-end technology we now cram into every car or the regulatory loophole that incentivized automakers to build giant, expensive vehicles for the last 25 years.
Nope. It's Regulation. The stuff that keeps you and I safe and the planet slightly more habitable for slightly longer. A lot of the regulations Trump is cutting are tied to fuel economy. In the same speech, Duffy told the crowd that Trump was doing away with Biden-era regulations that would have raised average fleet mpg to 50 by 2031. Nothing is for certain yet, but it's believed the Trump administration will set "targets" of 34.5 mpg by 2031. As of 2024, the most recent year we have data available from the Federal Highway Administration, the current fleet average sat at 27.2 mpg.
That leaves automakers with a lot more breathing room for future products, but it's not guaranteed to actually lower vehicle costs or save drivers money on gas — in fact, it might do the opposite. And, of course, this does nothing really for Americans right here and now, and that's how quickly we need help. Luckily gas is so cheap right now, and not at historically high levels at all, and the war that caused that spike is so completely winnable. We've won it several times in fact, so no one need worry about running up a huge energy bill.
The whole point is...
Americans can already buy a few cars without auto start/stop tech and, in basically every new car with the feature, drivers can turn it off if they are so offended by saving gas. For most drivers, the on-off of the engine becomes background noise. Most people aren't out here finding their line in the curves; their car gets them from point A to point B and the only time they really think about their cars is when it stops working. The engine turning on and off has also become much smoother in recent years, especially in vehicles with 48-volt mild-hybrid systems or full-on hybrids that can be driven under 100% electric power during stop-and-go city driving. Ever been in a new RAV4 hybrid, one of the best-selling cars in the country? You'd never even notice the start/stop operation.
The EPA didn't even remove any requirement for auto start/stop, because it was never actually forced upon automakers or consumers. Rather the agency rescinded an Obama-era credit that automakers could receive for including auto start/stop in their cars. While not everyone was or is a fan of the tech, we've already moved on to other, more important, life-threatening things to complain about, like how you can't see over the hood on some new cars, or how advanced driver-assistance systems and complex infotainment touchscreens are making us all worse drivers.
But no, a pretty boring feature we have all accepted as a fact of life long ago, that saves people money and makes cities easier to live in, is something worth targeting. It does seem like exactly 0 automakers are removing auto start/stop for their cars due to this regulatory blip.