Nation's Cleanest Gasoline Cars Are Not Available to All

Nation's Cleanest Gasoline Cars Are Not Available to All

By John O'Dell September 18, 2007

The federal government is adamant these days that we need to put cleaner, more efficient cars on the road, and  auto companies are lining up to tout their green credentials.

But the cleanest gasoline-fueled cars ever made aren’t available in 35 states, thanks to the weirdness that occurs when politics and parsimony collide.

There’s a $27,000 fine—never imposed but still on the books—for anyone who sells one of these vehicles in a state in which it hasn’t been certified.

The cars are the so-called PZEVs, 39 models from every major automaker save Chrysler, that meet California’s tough “partial zero-emission vehicle” requirements for ultra-clean emissions and 10-year emissions system warranties. They are so good at scrubbing emissions that the exhaust coming from their tailpipes is cleaner than the air sucked through their air filters in places -- such as Southern California freeways -- with particularly nasty pollution.

The politics are regulatory. The federal Environmental Protection Agency doesn't have a PZEV category of its own, but won’t recognize the California rating, which can be applied only there and in the five states -- Oregon, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts and Maine—that have adopted California emissions standards.  No regulatory agency likes to hand any of its power over to another.

The parsimony is corporate. Automakers spend about $100,000 to get a model certified as a PZEV under California Air Resources Board  rules. They would have to spend another $100,000 per model to get them cleared by the EPA, which insists on issuing its own certification even though it acknowledges that the cars are cleaner than required by the most stringent federal standard.

Automakers also must extend the emissions warranty and spend about $400 per car on special PZEV emissions equipment, and most are eating some of the extra costs right now. Increased volume would cost them more, or force them to raise retail prices, if they sold PZEVs in every state.

The car companies, of course, won’t admit an economic reason for Balkanizing PZEV sales. Most  simply point to Section 206 of the federal Clean Air Act and say government regulation prohibits them from selling their PZEVS in states that don’t use California’s tougher-than-federal emissions standards.

The situation was called to our attention by an alert member of the Edmunds CarSpace forums, who first saw it mentioned by an MSN Autos columnist.

As we dug into it, we came to the conclusion that not even “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” author Lewis Carroll could have imagined a more twisted scenario.

Only in California

The PZEV designation is one of those "only in California" bits of silliness: “partial zero" makes as much sense as "sorta pregnant." But it’s on the books, a special standard created to help carmakers comply with California’s much-amended and delayed 1990 Zero Emission Vehicles law.

A true zero emission vehicle, or ZEV, would get tons of credit toward complying with the law’s demand that each major automaker’s retail fleet in California contain a certain percentage of zero emissions vehicles.

But since pulling the plug on their battery-powered electric vehicles a few years ago, none of the companies make full-function, passenger-vehicle ZEVs for the retail market.

So California’s clean air regulators have created a sliding scale that awards a portion of the full ZEV credit to various vehicles depending on how clean they are.

To encourage development of new types of clean and fuel-efficient power trains, the rules give advanced technology vehicles, such as Toyota’s Prius, Ford's hybrid Escape SUV and Honda’s Civic Hybrid, a rating called AT-PZEV, or Advanced Technology Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle.  It’s worth 60 percent of a full ZEV credit.

For marketing rather than regulatory reasons, not all AT-PZEV hybrids are sold nationwide.  Nissan, for instance sells its new Altima hybrid only in California and the Northeastern states and says it is waiting to gauge market demand before expanding sales (Nissan also licensed Toyota's hybrid technology for the Altima and now is working on its own proprietary system and most likely wants to wait til it can get all the profit from its hybrids before selling them in all 50 states.)

Right below AT-PZEV is the plain-old PZEV rating, worth 20 percent of a ZEV. It is used for vehicles with internal combustion engines that meet the state’s restrictive “super ultra-low emissions vehicle” or SULEV, standard and add to that a special vapor recovery system that captures fumes from fuel that would evaporate from the gas tanks as the vehicles sit parked in the sun.

The automakers also must offer a 10-year, 150,000-mile warranty on all PZEV emissions system components, double the 5-year warranty offered for vehicles that don’t get the rating.

The Rule

Now comes the fun part.

Vehicles with PZEV equipment are specially certified under California rules, which only six states now use. The total will jump to eleven in the next few years as Arizona, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Maryland join the green team.

The EPA doesn't have a PZEV classification. And it  won't simply recognize the California certification and let the cars be sold wherever there’s a market for them.

Nope, the Feds insist that if a carmaker wants to sell a vehicle all decked out in PZEV accoutrements, it must re-certify it under federal standards. That’s despite the fact, well worth repeating, that by attaining the California PZEV rating, a manufacturer already has demonstrated that the car is cleaner than anything required by EPA standards.

The Feds do provide one break, though.  Recognizing that a lot of people who live in one state might cross the border to buy in another, the EPA allows car dealers in states that share boundary lines with the “California Rule” states to sell PZEVs if the manufacturers will provide them. That brings to 15 the number of states in which PZEVs can be sold.

It also casts a shadow over the EPA’s insistence that it has to certify the cars itself.

“We try to be practical,” said EPA spokesman John Millett.

So, if you live in Nevada, Arizona or Idaho, for instance, your local Ford dealer can sell you a PZEV-rated Ford Focus, if he has one in stock or can get one from a California dealer.

Volvo spokesman Geno Effler said his company, which markets two PZEV models, even honors the 10-year emissions warranty in the nine states that share borders with the official PZEV states.

But if a dealership in  Kansas, gets its hands on a PZEV, heaven forfend!

There’s that fine of up to $27,000 for selling a California-certified PZEV car in any state that doesn't use the California rules or doesn't share borders with those that do.

Perhaps we need  Mr. Carroll's beamish boy, wielding his blade—snicker-snack!— to slash through all the red tape.

John O'Dell, Senior Editor, Green Car Advisor.

John O'Dell:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.