It is common knowledge that businesses don't generally take kindly to federal mandates, but the car industry may be coming around. Honda is the latest car manufacturer expected to support the new federal plan to make auto manufacturers have an average mpg of 54.5, fleet wide, by 2025.

For those unfamiliar with the original government plan to increase fuel efficiency, it stated that auto makers would have to have a fleet wide average of 56.2 mpg by 2025. This was quickly lowered to 54.5 mpg after it was determined that 56.2 mpg was too high to a goal to achieve without raising prices significantly.

So, if Honda is on board with the new plan, what does that mean for them? It means that they will have to improve their fleet wide fuel efficiency by 5% each year. Trucks have not escaped the mandates either, but the mpg goals are slightly lower.

Of course, the road to better fuel efficiency hasn't been easy. With so many competing stakeholders, like environmentalists, governments , consumers and even automakers it can be extremely hard to come to a consensus. That's why Honda's expected endorsement of this deal , even if it costs more, shows leadership within the industry.

Ray LaHood, Transportation Secretary , mentions that, "This is not easy, but the companies [i.e., Honda and a few others] are being very cooperative, these deliberations are going on somewhere between 12 and 18 hours every day for the last several days...I think we'll get there."¹

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Source: ¹ http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20110727/AUTO01/107270331/1148/Carmakers-likely-to-back-new-fuel-rules