Trump rolled back fuel-economy standards in the US this week to make vehicles 'substantially safer,' but his claims about car safety don't mesh with reality

IIHS

The 2019 Tesla Model 3 during the side-impact crash test.

• This week, the Trump administration announced a rollback of stricter fuel-economy regulations from 2012 - a move President Donald Trump lauded as "making cars substantially safer."
• Trump has also claimed that fuel-efficient cars are made out of "papier-mâché," which is bad for crashes.
• But cars are already substantially safer than they were in 2012, and became safer under those stricter regulations.
• Fuel-efficient vehicles have also proven themselves to have the same safety potential as their less fuel-efficient counterparts, with several winning the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's highest award this year.
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This week, the Trump administration finally announced its rollback of Obama-era fuel-economy regulations from 2012, which aimed to require automakers to up the average fuel economy in their fleets to 54.5 mpg within the next few years.

It's a push years in the making by the Trump administration, which came to be during a global pandemic - and which President Donald Trump lauded as a great move.

"My proposal to the politically correct Automobile Companies would lower the average price of a car to consumers by more than $3500, while at the same time making the cars substantially safer," Trump tweeted. "Engines would run smoother. Positive impact on the environment! Foolish executives!"

Trump tweeted almost identical text in August 2019 after multiple automakers said they didn't support his rollback, with two changes: The post had $3,000 as its figure, and instead of calling it a "positive impact," Trump said: "Very little impact on the environment!"

The US Environmental Protection Agency and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced the final ruling on the loosened regulations, dubbed the "Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient Vehicles Rule." The new rules call for stricter emissions standards by 1.5% each year through the 2026 model year, compared to the 2012 requirement that tightened standards by about 5% each year.

The 2012 standards were seen as a major step in fighting climate change, even if tightening emissions regulations worldwide have caused some automakers to cheat the system. But Trump's goals to roll back standards have been in the works for years, and early plan iterations proposed freezing standards entirely.

California, which has long had the power to set its own standards, has fought the administration's decision to roll back such a major climate-change policy. In February, an analysis of the Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient Vehicles Rule published by the EPA's Science Advisory Board said there were "significant weaknesses in the scientific analysis of the proposed rule."

Yet Trump continues to claim that his rollback will be good for car safety and consumers, and for the environment. Here's how those claims compare to reality.