The Trump administration has expected corporations to cheer its efforts to lower environmental safeguards — to permit poisonous pesticides, to gut mine safety protections, to weaken rules on methane leaks in the energy industry.

It can be assumed, then, that administration officials thought they were offering the auto industry a gift with their continued pursuit to undo Obama-era rules on fuel economy intended to reduce greenhouse gases.

In a remarkable retort on Thursday, though, Ford Motor Company and three foreign automakers — which together represent roughly 30 percent of the American market — announced that their interests lie more with the planet, or at least with those who care about saving it, rather than with the president.

Following weeks of secret negotiations, Ford, BMW North America, Volkswagen Group of America and Honda agreed with California on a set of auto emissions standards that largely preserves the Obama-era rules, which set an average fleet mileage goal of 52.5 miles per gallon by 2025. The new regulations call for a fleet average of about 51 m.p.g. by 2026 and include other incentives. This is a reasonable revision. President Trump’s plan would lower the goal to 37 m.p.g.; the national average was 24.9 m.p.g. in 2017 .