[JTD]

Automakers are barely into the run-up to a government-required 35.5 miles per gallon in 2016 and they're about to be staring at a 60-mpg standard, it appears.



A proposed mileage rule is expected from the Obama administration this week, listing an overall auto-industry standard in 2025 that could range from about 47 mpg to 60 mpg. The process for finalizing such rules means it wouldn't be set in concrete until late 2011 or early 2012.

One big backer of the 60-mpg number is the Natural Resources Defense Council. The NRDC's transportation issues czar, Roland Hwang, blogs about the issue extensively. He tells Drive On that the technology required for automakers to average 60 mpg (1.67 gallons per 100 miles) would boost the average price of a 2025 vehicle $2,700 in today's dollars. Such a vehicle would repay its owner via fuel savings in about 4.5 years, assuming gasoline is an average of $3.40 a gallon in today's money, he says.