CARB developing Advanced Clean Cars II regulation
18 August 2021
On August 11, 2021, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) held remotely a public workshop on the ongoing development of the Advanced Clean Cars II (ACC II) regulations that will seek to reduce criteria and GHG emissions from new light- and medium-duty vehicles beyond the 2025 model year. The key items on the workshop agenda included the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) regulation and the Low-Emission Vehicle IV (LEV IV) emission standards for criteria pollutants.
ZEV Program. Under California Governor’s Executive Order N-79-20, 100% of in-state sales of new passenger cars and trucks are to be zero-emission by 2035. The ACC II regulation will include a number of updates to the California ZEV program to achieve this goal.
The planned amendments to the ZEV regulation would strengthening the requirements toward the 100% ZEV goal, such as through a reduction of credits per ZEV and limits on post-2025 credit life. The minimum technical requirements for ZEV credits would also be strengthened from 2026 model year. The changes include an extended driving range of 200 miles measured over two test cycles (equivalent to ~150 miles label range), up from the current 50 miles, and a larger on-board charger of 5.76 kW (currently 3.3 kW).
Proposed updates to the ZEV program discussed at the workshop also included the ACC II Environmental Justice (EJ) strategy, where car manufacturers could receive EJ credits for increasing affordability of ZEVs for California “undeserved communities”. The EJ credits could be used to meet the ZEV mandates in model years 2026-2031, with a 5% cap on the number of EJ credits allowed to fulfill a manufacturer’s obligation in any year.
To earn EJ credits, manufacturers would have to provide a discount for use in a community program. The minimum percent discount depends on the vehicle manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP), and increases in a number of steps from 5% for vehicles with MSRP below $20,000 to 25% in the $57,501-$60,000 MSRP range. The EJ credit would be equal to 0.50 for ZEVs and to 0.40 for PHEVs with 6-seat capacity or more.
EJ credits (of 0.10) would be also available for used ZEVs with a MSRP cap of $40,000 when new, registered for operation in California over 2026-2028 beyond their three years of service as a leased vehicle.
LEV IV Regulation. Several amendments are considered to tighten the LEV emission standards for criteria pollutants. For light-duty vehicles, the proposed changes include:
- NMOG+NOx fleet average standards—Remove ZEVs from the NMOG+NOx fleet average, and require 0.030 g/mile fleet average for NMOG+NOx for non-ZEVs
- Emission certification bins—Eliminate bins LEV160 and ULEV125; add intermediate bins ULEV60, ULEV40, and SULEV25; add cleaner bin SULEV10 and/or SULEV15.
- PM emission standards—Phase-in to 3 mg/mile PM on US06 cycle.
- Cold-start emissions—New requirements to regulate cold-start emissions for all soak durations, to control cold-start emissions for early drive-away, and to regulate PHEV aggressive driving cold-start emissions.
The LEV amendments would also tighten the requirements for emissions from medium-duty vehicles, and for evaporative emissions.
Another ACC II workshop is planned for the Fall of 2021, and the regulation is to be considered at a CARB hearing in June 2022.
Source: CARB