In the US, the first fuel crisis prompted the creation of the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards. These standards have changed over the years in the US, getting tighter and tighter – the government is demanding more fuel economy, and recently made huge leaps in demands. The basics of fuel economy boil down to engine displacement, vehicle weight, and engine efficiency. With our current levels of technology and all other things equal, lighter (smaller) cars will always get better fuel efficiency than heavier cars.
Enter China. They have 4x as many people as the US, and next year they are projected to surpass us in the size of their auto market. And they seem very concerned about emissions and fuel economy. The Wall Street Journal reports that China is putting a large tax on vehicles with engine displacement greater than 3.0L. The article further goes on to say that Toyota is moving fast to provide smaller engines – fast.
What kind of vehicles does this affect? If this were the US, the six cylinder Camry would be taxed – it has a displacement of 3.5L (the six cylinder Toyota Camry engine from 1992-2006 was a 3.0L engine). The new Ford Taurus engine that has been receiving so much attention because of its efficient 3.5L EcoBoost engine? Yup! Taxed. Heavily.
Japan has had multiple tax tiers for vehicles based on their engine displacement since before I was born. Europe has focused on smaller engines with turbo chargers for different reasons.
This leaves the US and Canada as the only nations in which big displacement vehicles for daily drivers are the norm. As the biggest market in the world for vehicles, this didn’t matter in the past. With China surpassing the North American market and with the US government pushing for higher efficiency standards, I wonder how long we have left to enjoy (or tolerate, depending on your disposition) large vehicles with large engines in the US. Certainly there has been and will continue to be a respite in our desire for large displacement engines. Most likely, only an alternate fuel source can revive the American love relationship with big engines.
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