EPA to propose 35 mpg, groups push for 60 mpg or even 70 mpg by 2025

By the end of this month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is due to propose new, even tougher fuel economy standards to take effect starting in 2017.

Passed just last year, the current standards will dramatically raise the fuel economy bar, ramping up from today's 27.5 mpg average for cars and 23.5 mpg for trucks to 37.8 mpg for cars and 28.8 mg for trucks by 2016. Those standards were released last year in response to the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, which requires cars and trucks to meet a combined average of of 35.5 mpg by 2020 (34.1 after credits.) Those standards, covering the maximum number of years regulators are allowed to set in advance, were announced on Earth Day last April.

On Thursday the EPA, in conjunction with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), will announce its intent to raise standards even further, to at least 35.5 mpg overall by 2025.

That imminent announcement has set off a bevy of calls for standards higher than the required 35.5 mpg. The Consumer Federation of America ( CFA), along with the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and more than 20 other groups called on the Obama Administration to set the new mileage targets at 60 mpg by 2025. Citing reports from the National Academy of Sciences and Massachusetts Institute of Technology that point to the 60-mpg figure as " technically feasible," the CFA says consumers would save enough on fuel to offset the cost of adding such fuel-efficient technology to cars. "Making cars more fuel efficient from an economic standpoint, the payback is certainly there," says Jack Gillis, a spokesman for the CFA. "That's a greater motivator than just protecting the environment."

Further, the CFA released a study today ( pdf) saying that 46 percent of consumers say they would support a 60 mpg fuel economy standard if the added cost of such cars could be recouped in five years.

John DeCicco, a senior lecturer at the School of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Michigan, has an even stronger proposal. DeCicco says fuel economy standards should be raised to 70 mpg by 2035. Using research on past trends, he says this can be achieved with conventional hybrids and internal-combustion engines - no need for plug-in cars or other alternative fuels. He examined the rate of technology increase from the time fuel economy standards were first passed in 1975 through today. Combining increases in both fuel economy and performance, he says the rate of technological improvement in internal-combustion engines has been about 3.7 percent a year. If all this improvement went into fuel economy, and horsepower were held to current levels, it would be possible to reach 70 mpg by 2035, he says, without downsizing cars.

Here at Consumer Reports, we support higher fuel economy standards and believe that conserving resources can help consumers save money at the pump and provide a hedge against potentially higher oil prices in the future.

How about you? What level of fuel economy do you expect from your next car? And what sacrifices, if any, would you accept to get it? Let us know in the comments below.

And we'll let you know the EPA's proposal when they release it later this week.

Think 60 mpg or 70 mpg sounds impossible? See our coverage of the Automotive X Prize, the $10 million competition to create a car that can achieve 100 MPGe.

See our guide to fuel economy for advice on saving gasoline. Learn about future technologies in our guide to alternative fuels.

—Eric Evarts