Trump Admin Sets Out To ‘Fix’ Everyone’s Least Favorite Car Feature

President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is on a mission to “fix” the despised start/stop technology in newer cars that shuts down a vehicle’s engine when stopped in traffic or at a red light in the name of conserving fuel and saving the planet.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said on Monday that his agency would begin looking into how it can modify the start/stop feature. The EPA currently incentivizes car manufacturers to make cars with the start/stop system. The technology can give vehicles anywhere between a 3% to 10% fuel economy boost.

“Start/stop technology: where your car dies at every red light so companies get a climate participation trophy. EPA approved it, and everyone hates it, so we’re fixing it,” Zeldin wrote on X.

Start/stop technology: where your car dies at every red light so companies get a climate participation trophy. EPA approved it, and everyone hates it, so we’re fixing it. pic.twitter.com/zFhijMyHDe

— Lee Zeldin (@epaleezeldin) May 12, 2025

Zeldin did not elaborate on specific plans to change the feature.

Start/stop technology was first used by European car manufacturers on hybrids, but over the past decade, most automakers began implementing the system in many of their new vehicles, including SUVs and pickup trucks. By 2019, however, more automakers began giving drivers the option to shut off the start/stop system as people began to complain. Buick first gave drivers that option with its 2019 Envision based on “customer feedback,” according to Car and Driver. Ford, GM, Volvo, and Lincoln also began including the shut-off option in their start/stop vehicles between 2017 and 2018.

While most cars with start/stop technology allow drivers to deactivate the system, they can’t turn it off permanently, and owners of start/stop cars who don’t want to use the tech still have to turn it off every time they get back in the car. The EPA’s fuel-economy test results for vehicles with the start/stop system are affected if drivers turn the system off. According to Car and Driver, “If a vehicle’s stop/start system can be permanently turned off, then the vehicle’s fuel economy is tested both when stop/start is active and when it’s off. The EPA then averages the two tests for a resulting fuel-economy rating found on the car’s window sticker—which is certain to be lower.”

The response to Zeldin’s announcement was overwhelmingly positive on social media, with many people calling the objective “common sense.”