Fuel Bladder Necessary for PZEV Certification? Apparently Not.

[rigormortis]

have you ever gone to driveclean.ca.gov?

thier defination of pzev is kind of weak, and just about every gasoline or hybrid car on that web site put out 180 lbs of co2 a year. makes the prius look disappointing from a smog production point of view

looking at that website it looks their is a total of 56 cars 12 hybrids and 44 gasoline cars that do the same exact score as a toyota prius as far as smog.

they say global warming scores won't be posted until january

[DeadPhish]

Originally Posted by Rokeby

The car next to me in the parking garage today had a PZEV sticker on the
driver's side rear window, just like my Prius. I stepped 'round to the rear to
check the make, and it was a Camry.,,. A CAMRY!? (This leads to the
suspicion that other Toyota models are similarly qualified,) "Strange," thinks
I, but then my eye fell on the license plate... you guessed it, California.

[Edit] PZEV; Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle.

So far -- knock wood -- I haven't run out of gas, nor had the dreaded BURP!
when refueling. I fill up at 2 pips. Occasionally when fueling, I stop the pump
and push the nozzle in really hard, and rotate it on the theory that it will
release any built-up pressure. Hey! Don't laugh, when you don't understand
the science, ritualistic behavior is a good fall-back.

From other investigations, I know that the Ford Focus and various Subaru
models sold in CA also carry the sticker.

So, there it is, the fuel tank bladder is not necessary to meet PZEV
requirements.

Just why is it then that Prius owners are saddled with this millstone?
What is it really doing for us, and for the environment?

N.B. For new readers/owners, to get the low down on the complexity of the
bladder and associated systems go here:

http://www.autoshop101.com/forms/Hybrid13.pdf

For a full sense of the frustration and aggravation it can cause, use the
search function with "bladder," "guess gauge," and "ran out of gas" as the
search terms.

I have a feeling it was an engineering and design issue from the late 90's early 2000's. The Prius was the first and they had to find a solution thus the bladder. The Camry followed several years later likely benefitting from more time and more minds working on the problem.

I'll venture to say the the Gen3 Prius does not have a bladder in the fuel tank.