The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday overturned a 2024 rule from the Energy Department altering how it calculates the fuel economy of electric vehicles.
The Biden-era change would have phased out a multiplier factor that increased the calculated fuel economy equivalent of electric vehicles, which environmentalists had argued overvalued the fuel economy level — and thus indirectly the pollution reduction benefits — from EVs. The Energy Department rule in turn would have meant automakers would need to sell more EVs to meet fleetwide average fuel economy standards.
However, the court ruled DOE completely lacks the authority to apply the factor at all. While the ruling has the strange effect of reinstating a 2000 rule that set the factor, it will likely prompt DOE to conduct a fresh rulemaking to remove the multiplier.
Background: DOE uses a “petroleum equivalency factor,” or PEF, to determine the mileage for electric vehicles under the corporate average fuel economy program, which is then administered by the Transportation Department. The metric had last been updated in 2000, when electric vehicles were largely a novelty. With more and more of those vehicles on the roads, however, DOE said it was time to reconsider its formula.
