Mercedes hit with CAFE fines

CAFE, the US organization in charge of stipulating mandatory fuel economy averages, has handed out more than $37 million in fines this year, for vehicles sold in 2007. Six manufacturers failed to meet the nationwide requirement fuel economy average, with Mercedes Benz being the worst offender. As such, CAFE hit them with a massive $28.9 fine; second only to DaimlerChrysler’s fine for the previous year, which totalled $30.3 million.

Dwarfing the remainder of the fines, Daimler’s repeated violations of the CAFE standard does not bode well for the coming years, as CAFE considers a new sliding scale average that could reach as much as 40 miles per gallon in the next decade. Not surprisingly, other sports car manufacturers hit included Maserati and Porsche; each hit with $1.2 million, as well as Ferrari, who was forced to fork out $1.1 million. Ironically, even economy car producers weren’t spared, as Volkswagen suffered a surprisingly $4.5 million dollar fine.