Trucks have a 25% import tax in the US and cars don't since the 1960. US domestic vehicle manufacturers have spent many decades to convince people to buy trucks and SUVs because of this fact. Google "chicken tax". Large station wagons used to be quite popular in the 1960's
It's not just because of this fact. It's also because trucks and SUVs are exempted from fuel efficiency standards that apply to sedans. So out sedans go, Ford doesn't even bother with them at all anymore.
That is another reason. But the smallest trucks were put in the car efficiency standards. There used to be a Ford F100. Full size truck but lighter load capacity. RIP. Tax gas if you want people to burn less of it.
> But the smallest trucks were put in the car efficiency standards.
I don't think that's exactly true. It's just that fuel standards for light trucks are now defined in terms of the footprint of the vehicle -- the smaller the truck, the higher the fuel standard. Which is, of course, exactly what the automakers wanted: They make more money selling bigger trucks.
Change CAFE first, then tax. There's only so much people can do to day-to-day to change their fuel consumption. It really comes down to 1) Where they live 2) Where they work and 3) What they drive. If we're going to raise taxes, we have to start by turning the ship around as far as the available vehicles. Right now the streets are filled with brodozers.
That is quite a complicated way to calculate the CAFE standard. I wonder what the definition of "light truck" is?
CAFE doesn't help day to day either. When you buy the car is when you are thinking most about gas prices and fuel efficiency. When gas prices are high people buy fuel efficient cars. The Prius, Teslas, etc. already exists so people can already show preference for fuel efficiency and manufactures can follow.
Edit: I was just thinking, if you force high fuel efficiency on the fleet and people want cars/trucks on average that get worse fuel efficiency than the stated goal, the market is going to always make the gas guzzlers more profitable and the fuel efficient cars loss leaders. We should either tax the gas or have a sliding scale tax on cars depending on the fuel efficiency. And taxing gas is better. I'm sure fuel efficiency standard can be gamed like diesel gate more easliy than the volume of a gallon of gas.
> I'm sure fuel efficiency standard can be gamed like diesel gate more easliy than the volume of a gallon of gas.
Well, the volume of a "gallon" of gas is of course technically far easier to game... Which is why there have been regulations, including technical countermeasures and I imagine rather substantial penalties, on that sort of thing for... The best part of a century, or actually over a century now?
