Honda is an engineering-led company, which is why it takes pride in accomplishments that might leave other companies scratching their heads at the effort expended. Take for example, its new 2014 Plug-in Hybrid Accord, which Clean Fleet Report recently tested. It became the first vehicle certified to California’s new emissions level–SULEV20.
Why should you care? SULEV20 is a new measurement level of smog-forming pollutants that indicates the Plug-in Accord will produce only 20 grams of emissions per mile, standards that all cars will need to meet by 2025. For comparison, the current standard allows cars to emit up to eight times that amount–and those cars are still quite clean. The 20 gram level is getting to the lower levels of accurate measure of existing test equipment, and is a level lower than the ambient air in many of the state’s more polluted areas. For the meaning of this acronym and others in the article, check out the end of the article.
Honda’s History of Low-Emission Firsts
For Honda, it’s become something of a tradition to be the first car certified at lower emissions standards as they are promulgated, to the point where the company is the one the state Air Resources Board often points to when other auto companies protest about the stringency of new regulations. For the record–here’s the list of Honda “firsts” with the model, year and, for comparison with the new SULEV20, the emissions level at which they were certified:
First LEV 1996 Civic 160 g/mi
First ULEV 1998 Accord 125 g/mi
First SULEV 2000 Accord 30 g/mi
First AT PZEV 2001 Civic GX (natural gas) 30 g/mi
First AT PZEV hybrid 2003 Civic Hybrid 30 g/mi
Deciphering the Alphabet Soup of Emissions Regulations
LEV=Low emission vehicle
ULEV=Ultra low emission vehicle
SULEV=Super ultra low emission vehicle
AT PZEV=Advanced technology, partial zero emission vehicle (a SULEV vehicle with zero evaporative emissions and advanced technology such as a hybrid powertrain or alternative fuel system
SULEV20=Super ultra low emission vehicle emitting only 20 grams of NMOG and NOx per mile
NMOG=Non-methane organic gases (Compounds containing carbon which, when combined with NOx in the presence of sunlight, form smog.)
NOx=Oxides of nitrogen (When combined with hydrocarbons and sunlight, NOx compounds form smog.)
Published Jan. 5, 2013
