Safe cars versus fuel efficiency? Not so fast.
As Congress eyes a boost to fuel-economy standards, auto industry hints that safety could be compromised. Some experts disagree.
from the June 12, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
Environmentalists are latching on the report to bolster their argument that CAFE standards should be raised.
Automakers "say the only way to improve fuel economy is to produce tiny little cars the size of thimbles," says Daniel Becker, director of the Sierra Club's Global Warming and Energy Program. "But there's so many things that can be done without even making a car smaller from better aerodynamics to engine technology to better transmissions."
The Senate is expected to begin debating Wednesday a bill that would require automakers to meet a fleet-wide average fuel economy of 35 miles per gallon by 2020 – a 10 m.p.g. jump from today's combined standard for cars and light trucks. Thereafter, the standard would rise 4 percent a year through 2030.
Many experts say that making a car lighter makes it less safe.
The report "implies that if size is not reduced, then the mass can be reduced with no consequences," writes Russ Rader, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in an e-mail. "This is a willful ignorance of physics. The fact is that if a vehicle carries less energy in a collision, then it must be prepared to absorb more of that energy."
Small cars haven't fared well in the past, many safety experts say. They point to a key finding of a 2002 National Academy of Sciences report, which found: "Downsizing that occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s, some of which was due to CAFE standards, probably resulted in an additional 1,300 to 2,600 traffic fatalities in 1993."
Auto-industry officials say the Senate legislation is "extreme" and suggest that it will force manufacturers to produce smaller vehicles.
"Study after study has confirmed that when meeting sharply increased fuel-economy standards, manufacturers are forced to make smaller, lighter, and less powerful vehicles – so safety trade-offs can be a consideration," says Wade Newton, spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a Washington-based trade association that represents General Motors, Ford, Daimler-Chrysler, Toyota, and other automakers.
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