Resolved: 2017-2022 Prius Primes ARE exempt from emissions testing in No. VA

We bought a prime new in 2021 and were exempt from emissions for four years because it was new.

We also own a 2004 Prius and a 2017 Prius Three touring and neither has ever had to get emissions.

Well I just bought a used 2021 Prime LE taking advantage of the used PHEV tax credit for $4000 off - that was originally titled in another state. When I went to get tags at DMV I was told I needed emissions. I was sure this was a mistake. Apparently hybrids have to have EPA City MPG greater than 50 mpg to be exempt and surely this super efficient - partial EV car- crushes 50MPG in city driving. The 2021 Prime is more efficient than all of those prius's, (likely you are doing some EV driving on a typical city driving day) so what's the deal?

(edit just found DEQ link confirming it's 50 mpg city rating that exempts a hybrid or 48mpg for 2008-2009)
https://www.deq.virginia.gov/our-programs/air/vehicle-emissions-air-check/how-do-i-get-an-inspection
click on "do hybrid vehicles require an emissions inspection"

I talked to Virginia DEQ Car emisisons person and we looked on EPA.gov at same time and sure enough Prius Prime only lists MPGe - of 133! and MPG "Combined" of 54 MPG. For whatever reason EPA.gov doesn't list the city/hwy breakout for the 2021 Prime.

I've done some digging around (finding Toyota sites and finally the brochure for the 2021 prime listing "EPA City 55 mpg", etc. and using a search with quote from the .pdf brochure and have managed to find the raw EPA test data sets - from fueleconomy.gov a Energy Dept website - and the spreadsheet clearly lists 2021 Prius Prime at 55 MPG City!
also found a fueleconomy.gov/m (mobile site I presume) that has the 55 mpg city listed!
FuelEconomy.gov Mobile
full 2021 test data from EPA/DOE here
Download Fuel Economy Data

So I am about to go to war lol with Virginia DEQ/DMV to get my new (used) Prime - and any other 2021 (or 2017-2022 ) Primes in Northern Virginia exempt from emissions tests - since they are super low emissions vehicles - and driven locally as EV cars- it is laughable they are not exempt and older Priuses are (as efficient as those were - they are less so than the plug in prime when considering daily city driving is in zero emission/EV mode ).

Anybody have a Prime (seems like other years also only list 54 Combined on fueleconomy.gov) that they have been required to get emissions for in No. VA? Assume other 2021's still to new to need it, maybe 2019's are coming up for registration now is DMV requiring emissions on the renewal notices? If so I think this is an error according to Virginia Law and I wonder if I can get through to the bureaucracy to get it fixed? Prepared to go to my state representatives and to DEQ/DMV to get it fixed. Anybody got a good Virginia legislature or DEQ or DMV contact to help me speed this along?

2021 Prime listing on fueleconomy.gov that DEQ guy pointed me to... "We can't use combined it has to be city" he said - as I tried to explain if the 2004 and 2017 Priuses were 50mpg city - this car certainly was. Argh.
Fuel Economy of the 2021 Toyota Prius Prime

I'm especially annoyed as Virginia has passed a higher "use fee" for high fuel efficiency vehicles due to less gas tax paid to pay for road upkeep/construction.

 

thanks trollbait and biomed - yes - I support doing my part to be a good steward of the environment/following the law - and since Pruises have such good fuel economy Virginia law says they are exempt from emissions testing because of that (producing way less emissions per mile/year/lifetime by tens of thousands of pounds of gas not burned/toxins not emitted than non hybrids/avg. car over lifetime) - but yes if they are much older or not functioning properly there should be a mechanism to review that - perhaps at 10 year mark or one emissions test after a resale or add a scan of emissions codes/verify emissions readiness monitors/CEL status as part of annual safety/mechanical inspection that all cars have to get - Priuses included - to ensure clean operation.

Well - update - I am happy to report success - speaking with the Virginia DEQ (after some initial resistance - "the numbers are the numbers, that's the EPA", etc.) it turns out that they looked at what I sent them and checked and found a data entry issue with the 2021 Prime plugin - that is rated at 55 mpg city (hybrid/ice only not even taking any likely city EV driving into account ) so it IS exempt from emissions in Northern Virginia - and supposedly they're going to fix it with the DMV. (side note the Prime plugin is likely to be driven in EV mode - zero tailpipe emissions/only much lower electricity generation emissions (possibly solar) - for much of its city driving - depending on charging of course.

So hopefully this will get fixed for other 2021 Prime owners as they will come up for emissions (or exemption) by next year.

Cheers. Love my new (used) super efficient, enjoyable to drive 2021 Prius Prime LE!

 

Ok - I can report successful resolution of this issue. My new (used) 2021 Prime was coming up as "emissions test required" due to two issues. But the most relevant error was in the Virginia DEQ to DMV data entry process related to the Prime VIN class and how they had been entered by DMV into the system and not correctly linked to the EPA MPG ratings transmitted to the state from EPA. Anyway - the Virginia DEQ in Woodbridge/No.VA Air Check program (emissions testing requirement for car registrations in Wash. DC Metro) figured it out and got the data entered correctly for the Prime "family of VINs" so my 2021 Prius Prime (and all Primes/plugins with EPA City rating greater than 50mpg) are exempt from emissions testing. So if you have a 2017-2020 Prime in No. VA you should not have emissions requirement and you should be allowed to register/renew registration for 3 years at a time once your car comes up for renewal outside of 4 most recent model years.

Admin - Please change the thread subject to "Resolved: 2017-2022 Prius Primes ARE exempt from emissions testing in No. VA"

Thanks!