With plug-in electric cars about to hit the U.S. market in droves soon (Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt, we’re looking at you), the EPA has finally come out with some proposed fuel economy window stickers for plug-in electric cars.

There are currently two designs which both share the same kinds of information, just with a difference layout. What the plug-in EV fuel economy stickers have in common is the added information that comes along with the complexity of electric vehicles.

Among the additional data elements is a field for greenhouse gas emissions. These will however, only cover emissions that come from the tailpipe, which is understandable since grid emissions might be a little tricky to pin down.

There will also be an area that shows fuel/energy consumption in terms of gallons per 100 miles and/or kilowatt-hours per 100 miles. Plug-in hybrid stickers will also feature a set of mpg numbers as well as a composite/equivalent number that reflects energy usage while the battery is charged and while it’s depleted.

The new fuel economy window stickers also come with a QR code that lets shoppers scan it to make quick comparisons on vehicles.

Buckle up. The new CAFE standards are here.

The NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) came together today to release the Federal CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) gas emission standards for car models in the 2012 – 2016 range. The key numbers announced are 34.1 mpg by 2016 although due to air conditioning augmentations that number goes up to 35 mpg. Break this down further into greenhouse gas terms, that’s about 250 grams of CO2 per mile.

The NHTSA is expecting that 2012 numbers will be 33.3 mpg for cars and 25.4 for light trucks and going up to 37.8 and 28.8 respectively within another four years.

Credits will continue to be given for vehicles that run on ethanol, although somehow, owners will bear the burden of proof to show that those vehicles are indeed using ethanol by 2015 to continue to get those credits.

Smaller automakers (those that sold fewer than 400K cars last year) will get less strict requirements while specialty automakers (like BMW and Porsche) will get longer lead-in times.

There will also be some kind of incentive for the first 200,000 electric and plug-in hybrid cars made.

The total costs to car companies to comply is expected to be about $51.5 billion across five years. This will trickle down to the car buyer in an average price increase of just under $1,000. Although the upside is that savings at the pump (and the environment) should be approximately $3,000.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made it official and announced today that greenhouse gases are harmful to people and that car emissions directly contribute to increased green house gases. In other words, all of the gas burning vehicles out there are directly responsible for making people sick.

Lisa Jackson, EPA Administrator, stated that “greenhouse gases threaten the public health and welfare of the American people. EPA also finds that GHG emissions from on-road vehicles contribute to that threat.”

She went on to explain that the studies that contributed to this announcement showed overwhelming evidence that greenhouse gases were not only at their highest point ever, but were at that level due to human activity.

The direct impact of these findings won’t be revealed immediately but Jackson did state that it “is the prerequisite for strong new emissions standards for cars and trucks: the ones the president announced last spring.”

For more details you can listen some of Jackson’s speech on the EPA announcement.