Right, but if they're at the average, then there's no incentive either way, because making more or fewer cars that sit at the fleet average wouldn't swing the overall average in either direction. If, as this author claims, the point is to affect the overall average and bring it in conformance with the legal standard, the cars furthest from the average have the most strongest incentives. I'm not saying he's right about the balancing effect, just that I think this is what his argument is.

 

That's why we need to keep the standard a moving target, as it was intended.

 

I just posted in another thread that when I filled up this morning, the person before me spent $75 on just over 23 gallons and didn't get a full tank (they stopped at $75.00 even). The oil companies may be doing more to drive us into cars that are above that average than any government incentive would...