King of the road no more? Why Trump can't steer the global auto market

Shift in major car markets fuel standards has been a major problem for automakers

Turns out that overturning the Obama administration’s fuel-economy rules isn’t as easy as it seems.

Honda Motor Co., Ford Motor Co., Volkswagen AG and BMW AG struck an agreement with the state of California on Friday that will push through tighter fuel-economy regulations than those proposed at a national level by the Trump administration. Other major automakers are likely to follow that lead. Since states representing the most profitable third of the US car market tend to follow California’s standards, that’s a significant blow to Washington’s attempt to roll back stringent Obama-era rules.

Carmakers aren’t doing this out of the