CARB Mandate for Zero Emission Vehicles

I guess only Nissan, Tesla, Smart, and Mitsubishi will be legal for sale then?

 

"Near-ZEV" means PZEV (SULEV with no evap and extended warranty). Many cars meet this standard, but you can't meet your goal solely with PZEVs.. the minimum is 0.79% of your sales must be ZEV. Another 11.21% must be a mix of eAT-PZEV, AT-PZEV and PZEV. You can also get credit for older ZEV/PZEV cars that are still on the road. Manufacturers can also buy/sell/trade credits and credits can accumulate over time.

More detail than you'd ever want:
http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/factsheets/zev_tutorial.pdf

 

Well, the RAV4-EV is returning ... then there's the Ford EV Focus just around the corner too. Someone just posted on the teeny Toyota EV soon to be here ... not countig Honda's natural gas version of the civic. That's just off the top of my head. What came 1st - the new laws? ... or the manufacturers finally getting on board. I'd guess the former.

 

Yeah I was just counting stuff that you can touch right now.

 

I have to think this will go to court.

 

Toyota, Nissan, Ford and BMW will have EVs by 2012. GM, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Chrysler, Mazda, and others will be in trouble.

 

Hyundai, Kia, Chrysler, Mazda because of lower sales are not required to participate.

 

My favorite fuel economy "troubled" car company has to be Mercedes. MB's CAFE mileage usually tops out as one of the worst of companies. MB's attitude mirrored GM's for a long time ... that if you can afford poor mpg's then it shouldn't matter. One of our customers was in charge of one of MB's marketing projects back in the 1980's. He tells the story how one marketing project that MB shot down involved a 300E being given away as a grand prize. It was shot down because according to MB, "Mercedes is NOT a raffle Prize". That same snooty arrogance seems to apply to MB and mileage ... that if you can't afford 16mpg then go somewhere else. MB just passes the CAFE low mileage fines onto the customer ... making their product more expensive. But if you can't afford a low mileage AND consequentially more expensive (via low mpg fines) auto ... then go somewhere else.

It's like an automotive version of "The Emperor's New Clothes". For those who aren't up on their Hans Christian Anderson fables:
The Emperor's New Clothes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Anyway - as mpg pressures build and build for auto manufacturers, I'm sure MB bought out the Smart Car (wasn't is a swiss company at 1st?), just to help with their sagging CAFE standards. And ... with the EV version just around the corner, well, that can't hurt either.

 

It was Swiss first, then partnered with VW for a short time, then after being dropped by dropped by VW they teamed with MB

Smart (automobile) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia