SEMA Advocacy Leads to EPA Delaying Most Aggressive Tailpipe Emissions Benchmarks
After advocacy from the automotive community, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is delaying its most aggressive tailpipe emissions reduction requirements from model year 2027 to model year 2030. The EPA’s final rule also slightly increased the average tailpipe emissions for light-duty vehicles, increasing the standard to 85 grams/mile from 82 grams/mile for model year 2032.
While the agency’s final rulemaking provides automakers with additional time to ramp up production of zero-emissions vehicles (ZEVs), currently, only electric vehicles (EVs) and five plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) meet the easier 85 grams/mile standard. It is estimated that 67% of new vehicles sold would have to be EVs by 2032 to meet this standard. Automakers could also comply with the final rule if EVs account for 56% of new vehicle sales and PHEVs comprise 13% of model year 2032 sales. The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) opposes the EPA’s final standards for model year 2027 to 2032 light and medium-duty vehicles, which ultimately still forces automakers to sell EVs and PHEVs to comply with this rulemaking and further limits internal combustion engine technology options.