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Corporate Average Fuel Economy

CAFE Public Information Center

Overview

NHTSA’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy Public Information Center (CAFE PIC) is a resource for the public and automobile manufacturers to obtain information on the Light-Duty CAFE and Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicle and Engine Fuel Consumption programs. CAFE PIC allows researchers, analysts, media, and the public to easily access dynamic data about how manufacturers are complying with NHTSA’s fuel efficiency programs. For manufacturers, CAFE PIC provides the most up-to-date resources for compliance. Public information is updated on CAFE PIC as often as possible to provide users with the most recent compliance data that NHTSA possesses, which can be viewed in reports and interactive table and graph formats. The interactive data can be sorted and filtered based on specific areas of interest to produce custom reports, which can also be downloaded as Excel or PDF files.

Light Duty

NHTSA’s light-duty Corporate Average Fuel Economy program includes all vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of 8,500 pounds or less. The program defines three separate compliance categories (fleets):  

  • domestic passenger vehicles, 
  • import passenger vehicles, and  
  • light trucks.  

These fleets are defined based on things like production location, off-road characteristics, or expanded cargo carrying capacities. Manufacturers provide compliance reports to NHTSA before and during the model year. After the model year, manufacturers provide compliance reports to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to document the mile-per-gallon levels of the vehicles manufactured, and the EPA verifies the manufacturers’ final compliance data and makes corrections if necessary. To comply with CAFE standards, manufacturers must exceed the applicable CAFE fleet standard for each compliance category or supplement any shortages using CAFE credits. If manufacturers over-comply with a given standard, they can:  

  • carry credits up to 5 model years in the future,  
  • apply credits up to 3 model years in the past,  
  • transfer credits between fleets, or  
  • trade (buy or sell) credits with other manufacturers to resolve shortages.

If manufacturers do not comply with CAFE standards based on the performance of their fleets and application of credits, they are subject to civil penalties.

Light Duty Reports

Light-duty reports provide public access to compliance data that manufacturers and EPA provide. Data related to credits and civil penalty payments is also available.

Provides fuel economy performance, standards, and production sales volumes for the entire industry, as combined fleets of domestic passenger cars, import passenger cars, and light trucks. Data available through data visualization ->

Provides fuel economy performance, standards, and production sales volumes for each manufacturer’s fleet of domestic passenger cars, import passenger cars, and light trucks. Data available through data visualization ->

Displays each manufacturer’s credit balance. Credits are an earned or traded allowance. Manufacturer compliance with the fuel economy standards is calculated in credits. Since model year 2011, manufacturers have been able to trade credits with other manufacturers and transfer credits within their own fleets for compliance flexibility. Data available through data visualization ->

Provides civil-penalties data collected by NHTSA since the start of the CAFE program. Data available through data visualization ->

Flexible fuel vehicles boost the CAFE program by allowing manufacturers to increase their fleet’s fuel economy performance values. This report shows which manufacturers produce flex-fuel vehicles and the impact on their fuel economy performance values. Data available through data visualization ->

Provides an update on industry compliance with CAFE standards. It also quantifies the annual total of surplus credits for automotive manufacturers who exceeded CAFE standards, and credit shortfalls for automotive manufacturers who did not meet CAFE standards. The report also shows how manufacturers use credits or pay civil penalties to resolve these shortfalls.

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MY 2011-MY_2019_Credit_Shortfall_Report_v08.pdf 113 KB 12/15/2023 06:01:09 AM ET

Includes CAFE data for MY 2011 to MY 2020 and two final compliance data sets. The first data set shows how manufacturers’ fleets perform with allowable compliance flexibilities. For the period, manufacturers could increase the performance of their fleets using flexibilities allowed under the Alternative Motor Fuels Act (AMFA, see 49 U.S.C. 32906) and by the Environmental Protection Agency in accordance with 40 CFR 86.1868 and 86.1869. The second data set shows how manufacturers use credit flexibilities from Congress (see 49 U.S.C. 32902 and 49 CFR 536) in complying with CAFE standards. These data sets give a comprehensive overview of how manufacturers comply with CAFE standards and the magnitude at which manufacturers are implementing each allowable flexibility.

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Public_2011-2020 Compliance Overview and Credit Flexibility (version 2).xlsm 78 KB 12/15/2023 06:01:10 AM ET

Unlike other reports, which contain only EPA-verified final model year data, this report contains projected data from manufacturers’ pre- and mid-model year (PMY and MMY) reports (required by 49 CFR Part 537), which has not been verified by NHTSA or EPA. Manufacturers’ projected data is publicly available to ensure transparency. However, NHTSA only uses EPA-verified final model year data to evaluate manufacturers’ compliance. The mixture of vehicles produced for sale throughout the model year can cause differences between the final and the projected model year data in the PMY and MMY reports.

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MY 2016 and 2017 Projected Fuel Economy Performance Report Final.pdf 90 KB 12/15/2023 06:01:10 AM ET
MY 2017 and 2018 Projected Fuel Economy Performance_Report.pdf 109 KB 12/20/2023 06:01:07 AM ET
MY 2018 and 2019 Projected Fuel Economy Performance Report_v07 - Final.pdf 138 KB 12/15/2023 06:01:10 AM ET

Light-Duty Templates

Light-duty report templates provide standardized templates for manufacturers to use when submitting CAFE reports and credit transaction (i.e., credit trade) documents.

In 2018, NHTSA issued a final rule containing two new standardized templates for manufacturers to use when submitting CAFE compliance reports to the agency and for reporting CAFE credit transactions. The reporting template standardizes each manufacturer's CAFE data required under 49 CFR 537.7(b) and (c) to ensure the accuracy and completeness of data collected and to better align with the final data provided to EPA. The credit template standardizes the process of submitting credit transaction requests and facilitates quicker credit transaction approvals required under 49 CFR 536. Both templates significantly reduce the burden on all automobile manufacturers and on the government.

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Credit Value Template V12.xlsm 6 MB 12/15/2023 06:01:25 AM ET
FAQ.pdf 227 KB 12/15/2023 06:01:25 AM ET
Master Slides for presentation v6 for publishing.pptx 22 MB 12/15/2023 06:01:25 AM ET
NHTSA CAFE Credit Transaction Template User Manual_v04.pdf 400 KB 12/15/2023 06:01:25 AM ET
NHTSA CAFE Credit Transaction Template_v24.xlsm 652 KB 12/15/2023 06:01:25 AM ET
NHTSA CAFE Projections Reporting Template_v2.41_CONFIDENTIAL.xlsm 46 MB 02/02/2024 06:01:11 AM ET
PMY and MMY Reporting Template Change Log_02.pdf 197 KB 02/02/2024 06:01:11 AM ET
Projections Reporting Template User Guide_v12.pdf 2 MB 12/15/2023 06:01:33 AM ET

Medium- and Heavy Duty

NHTSA’s medium- and heavy-duty vehicle fuel consumption program applies to Class 2b-8 vehicles, work trucks with a GVWR greater than 8,500 pounds, and engines manufactured for use in tractors and vocational vehicles. The program defines three vehicle categories and two engine categories for complying with fuel consumption standards and requirements.
Medium- and heavy-duty vehicle and engine manufacturers provide reports before, during, and after the model year to document the compliance levels of the vehicles and engines they manufacture. To reduce regulatory burden, manufacturers submit reports through EPA to provide information for the NHTSA fuel consumption program and parallel EPA greenhouse gas program. After each model year, the manufacturers’ final compliance data is verified and corrections are made if necessary. Manufacturers’ compliance is determined by the performance of their various averaging sets. An averaging set is a group of similar vehicles or engines that is defined by its gross vehicle weight range and other characteristics. If manufacturers over-comply with a given standard, they can: 

  • carry credits up to 5 model years in the future, 
  • apply credits up to 3 model years in the past, or  
  • trade (buy or sell) credits with other manufacturers to resolve shortages.

Manufacturers may comply with standards based on the performance of their averaging sets and the application of credits.

Medium- and Heavy-Duty Reports

Medium- and heavy-duty reports provide public access to an average of the industry performances and standards in each compliance category of vehicles and engines based upon compliance reports. 

NHTSA's Fleet Performance Report for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles and engines displays EPA-verified year-end fuel consumption standards and performance data measured in gallons per 1,000 ton-miles (vehicles) and gallons per 100 hp-hr (engine) by regulatory subcategory and model year. The report presents four different performance values (i.e., minimum, maximum, production-weighted average, and median) that can all be compared to a single associated standard for each averaging set. The total credits for each averaging set are also included. The information in the report is also broken down by vehicles, engines, and for manufacturers who decided not to participate in NHTSA’s average, banking and trading program (ABT) (see 49 CFR 535.7).

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MDHD Fleet Performance.xlsx 35 KB 12/15/2023 06:01:09 AM ET
MDHD Fleet Performance_2020.xlsx 30 KB 12/15/2023 06:01:09 AM ET

Medium- and Heavy-Duty Templates

Medium- and Heavy-Duty report templates provide standardized templates for manufacturers to use when submitting a credit transaction plan to resolve credit shortages under the NHTSA fuel consumption program.

Here are templates related to Medium- and Heavy-Duty.

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ABT Credit Allocation Plan User Guide_V01.pdf 603 KB 12/15/2023 06:01:09 AM ET
ABT Credit Plan Template v10.xlsm 137 KB 12/15/2023 06:01:09 AM ET

Questions

If you have questions about CAFE PIC, send an e-mail to the CAFE PIC team.