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CARB developing Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) regulation

27 July 2022

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) held yesterday another workshop on the Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) regulation. The goal of this effort is to accelerate the number of medium and heavy-duty zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) purchases to achieve a ZEV truck and bus fleet in California by 2045 “everywhere feasible”.

In June 2020, CARB adopted the Advanced Clean Trucks regulation that imposes ZEV sale mandates for manufacturers of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles (Class 2b through 8). The rule requires truck manufacturers to transition from diesel trucks and vans to zero-emission trucks beginning in 2024. By 2045, every new truck sold in California is to be zero-emission.

The new ACF regulation is intended to compliment the Advanced Clean Trucks regulation and to provide further support for the California ZEV goals by imposing ZEV purchase mandates for California fleets of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. CARB Staff Report on the proposed ACF regulation is expected in early September.

The initial focus is on high-priority fleets, federal fleets, and state and local government fleets with vehicles that are suitable for early electrification. The compliance criteria depend on the type of fleet.

For California “high priority” and federal (HPF) fleets, all additions to the fleet would have to be ZEV, starting in 2024. Existing trucks are to be removed at the end of their useful life—at 800,000 miles or 18 years (but no less than 13 years). As an option, HPF fleets would have to meet ZEV milestones, expressed as a progressive percentage of ZEVs in the fleet, reaching 100% ZEV fleet in 2035 for box trucks, vans and two-axle buses; in 2039 for work trucks, day cab tractors and three-axle buses; and in 2042 for sleeper cab tractors.

For state and local government fleets, the requirements are based on a number of new vehicles added to the fleet, with a certain minimum percent of vehicle additions to be ZEV:

The development of the ACF program is a challenging task, as the regulation will mandate purchases of vehicle technologies that, to a large extent, do not yet exist. To minimize the potential adverse effects to California economy, the ACF rule will include an array of exemption and extension provisions. The key exemptions include:

Source: CARB