[ROGNOx]

The California Air Resources BOARD (CARB) is having an International Vehicle Technology Symposium this week (March 11-13, 2003). It is being broadcast over the Internet at:

http://www.calepa.ca.gov/broadcast/

Toyota and Honda and others are discussing Hybrids Wednesday, March 12 starting 1:00 PM PST. Toyota has their PowerPoint presentation available on the symposium website.

For more information about the Symposium and to view the PowerPoint presentaion visit:

http://www.arb.ca.gov/gcc/gcc.htm

BTW: It looks like the Prius is going PZEV in 2004.

 

[Henry]

What's "PZEV"?

 

[citicar1976]

PZEV

PZEV is short for Partial Zero Emission Vehicle. A PZEV vehicle would be considered "cleaner" than a SULV vehicle.

 

[magildl]

PZEV info

This article doesn't have a date on it, but here's some info about PZEV

To achieve PZEV certification, a vehicle has to go beyond the SULEV emission standards. The manufacturer must eliminate evaporative emissions, and ensure that the vehicle will run cleanly for its entire projected life. Even if your car is just sitting in the driveway, it is still polluting. The source of this pollution is hydrocarbons emitted from the gas tank as gasoline slowly evaporates. To achieve PZEV certification, all evaporative emissions must be eliminated.

Vehicles also tend to pollute more as they age, because of wear in the engine and reduced efficiency in the emission control system. Current vehicles are expected to last for 15 years or 150,000 miles. To achieve PZEV certification, the manufacturer must provide a warranty that will keep the emission control system functioning correctly for at least that long. The ZEV mandate has a complex formula for calculating the amount of credit that a vehicle earns towards the 6% requirement. A gasoline-based PZEV like the Nissan Sentra CA will receive 0.2 ZEV credits. A gasoline HEV like the Toyota Prius or Honda Insight, assuming they could get PZEV certification, would receive 0.3 ZEV credits.

 

[Henry]

Thanks very much for the summary. The article link didn't work for me, but I'm happy to have the information you gave. I'm impressed that the Nissan Sentra could get PZEV!