Trump administration scraps electric vehicle fuel economy incentive rule

The Trump administration announced on February 18, 2026, that it is rescinding an Energy Department provision known as the fuel content factor. This provision had previously assigned elevated fuel-economy values to electric vehicles, a mechanism that significantly impacted how these cars were weighted in regulatory assessments. By removing this factor, the administration is fundamentally changing how electric vehicles are counted in fleetwide Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) rules calculations.